Transcriptome shock invokes disruption of parental expression-conserved genes in tetraploid wheat

Sci Rep. 2016 May 20:6:26363. doi: 10.1038/srep26363.

Abstract

Allopolyploidy often triggers phenotypic novelty and gene expression remolding in the resulting polyploids. In this study, we employed multiple phenotypic and genetic approaches to investigate the nature and consequences of allotetraploidization between A- and S-subgenome of tetraploid wheat. Results showed that karyotype of the nascent allopolyploid plants (AT2) is stable but they showed clear novelty in multiple morphological traits which might have positively contributed to the initial establishment of the tetraploids. Further microarray-based transcriptome profiling and gene-specific cDNA-pyrosequencing have documented that transcriptome shock was exceptionally strong in AT2, but a substantial proportion of the induced expression changes was rapidly stabilized in early generations. Meanwhile, both additive and nonadditive expression genes showed extensive homeolog expression remodeling and which have led to the subgenome expression dominance in leaf and young inflorescence of AT2. Through comparing the homeolog-expressing patterns between synthetic and natural tetraploid wheats, it appears that the shock-induced expression changes at both the total expression level and subgenome homeolog partitioning are evolutionarily persistent. Together, our study shed new light on how gene expression changes have rapidly occurred at the initial stage following allotetraploidization, as well as their evolutionary relevance, which may have implications for wheat improvements.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence
  • Karyotype
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / methods*
  • Phenotype
  • Plant Proteins / genetics*
  • Quantitative Trait Loci
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA
  • Tetraploidy
  • Triticum / genetics*

Substances

  • Plant Proteins