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Title: Abiotic stress-related expressed sequence tags from the diploid strawberry Fragaria vesca f. semperflorens

Author
item RIVAROLA, MAXIMO - University Of Maryland
item CHAN, AGNES - J Craig Venter Institute
item MALEKE, ADMASU - University Of Maryland
item QUAN, HUI - J Craig Venter Institute
item CHEUNG, FOO - J Craig Venter Institute
item OUYANG, SHU - J Craig Venter Institute
item FOLTA, KEVIN - University Of Florida
item Slovin, Janet
item RABINOWICZ, PABLO - University Of Maryland

Submitted to: The Plant Genome
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/18/2010
Publication Date: 3/1/2011
Citation: Rivarola, M., Chan, A., Maleke, A., Quan, H., Cheung, F., Ouyang, S., Folta, K., Slovin, J.P., Rabinowicz, P. 2011. Abiotic stress-related expressed sequence tags from the diploid strawberry Fragaria vesca f. semperflorens. The Plant Genome. 4:12-23.

Interpretive Summary: Crops growing in the field can face dramatic changes in temperature, lack of water, or increased salt in the soil resulting from irrigation. Under these stressful conditions crops cannot grow well and their ability to produce seed and fruit is decreased. We report here DNA sequences corresponding to genes that are expressed in plants in response to environmental stresses. The sequences were obtained from the woodland strawberry, a plant that is representative of a large family of commercially grown fruits including peaches and apples. The sequences were analyzed to determine their function by comparing them to other plant sequences in the public databases. A large number of the sequences code for genes that are known to function as part of a plant’s response to environmental stresses. These sequences are required for modern breeding programs to select for plants that can cope better with high temperatures, and will be used by researchers for understanding the DNA sequence of strawberry.

Technical Abstract: Background Plants of the Rosaceae family such as the large-statured tree crops apple, peach and cherry, the ornamental rose, the cultivated octoploid strawberry, F. ×ananassa, represent a considerable share of horticultural crops worldwide, many of which fail to produce maximally due to environmental stresses. We are using the diploid woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) as a model system for functional genomics studies. Its small stature, fast regeneration time, efficient transformability and small genome size make it an ideal reference plant for the Rosaceae, and other herbaceous perennials. However, the number of ESTs available for this plant was very small. The ESTs available for strawberry and other Rosaceous plants were primarily derived from fruit tissues and would not reflect responses to abiotic stress. Results In order to expand the genomic resources for the Rosaceae family, we have generated 41,430 EST sequences from 5 Fragaria vesca cDNA libraries constructed using seedlings and plants grown under cold, drought, heat, salt, or a combination of salt and heat treatments. After clustering and assembling the sequences, a total of 4,433 contigs and 7,403 singletons were obtained representing 11,836 unique sequences. After tBLASTx analysis against nearly half a million Rosaceae ESTs publically available, 1,286 EST assemblies showed no match using a cutoff of e equal to or less than ten to the minus ten. Conclusions Over 1,000 new Rosaceae sequences were discovered, adding to the diversity of sequences available for improvement of strawberry. F. vesca can quickly address questions of gene function in these valuable crop species and the ESTs reported represent a valuable resource for the entire Rosaceae research community.