Sugarcane is an important industrial crop used for the production of sugar and biofuel. Moisture deficit is an important factor, leading to low productivity in sugarcane. Understanding the molecular changes under moisture-deficit stress helps in deciding the candidate genes to target while developing improved stress-tolerant sugarcane varieties. The changes in transcriptome profile were studied by sequencing total RNA isolated from roots of drought-resistant sugarcane variety, Co 94008, under moisture-deficit stress and unstressed conditions. The up-regulation of expression of genes dominated over down-regulation under moisture-deficit stress in sugarcane. More than 45,000 open reading frames (ORFs) were predicted in the transcripts observed under unstressed and stressed conditions. Highest numbers of ORFs were found to be involved in various metabolic processes, followed by cellular processes. Gene ontology analysis identified 27 genes which are related to the responses of water deprivation and stress. Of the identified ORFs, 1143 showed significant differential expression, of which 487 were up-regulated and 656 were down-regulated. Nine of the up-regulated genes showed more than 100-fold increased expression under stressed conditions than the unstressed conditions. Thirty-six differentially expressed genes were found to have microsatellites regions which can be used as potential sites for diversity analysis. Expression profile of transcription factors (TFs) was also altered in sugarcane under moisture-deficit stress. Of the TFs which showed differential expression, five TFs were quantified in real-time PCR and exhibited similar pattern of expression in both sequencing and real-time PCR. The present study provides insights into the changes in sugarcane transcriptome due to moisture-deficit stress which lead to a more comprehensive understanding of responses to moisture-deficit stress.

中文翻译：

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水分亏缺胁迫条件下甘蔗的新一代测序转录组分析

甘蔗是用于生产糖和生物燃料的重要工业作物。水分不足是一个重要因素，导致甘蔗生产力低下。了解水分缺乏胁迫下的分子变化有助于确定候选基因靶向，同时开发改良的耐胁迫甘蔗品种。通过在水分缺乏胁迫和无胁迫条件下，对从抗旱甘蔗品种Co 94008的根中分离的总RNA进行测序，研究了转录组谱的变化。在缺水胁迫下甘蔗中基因表达的上调高于下调。在无压力和压力条件下观察到的转录本中，预计将有超过45,000个开放阅读框（ORF）。发现最高数量的ORF参与各种代谢过程，随后是细胞过程。基因本体分析确定了27个与缺水和胁迫反应有关的基因。在已鉴定的ORF中，有1143个表达显着差异，其中487个被上调，而656个被下调。九个上调的基因在压力条件下的表达增加了100倍以上。发现有36个差异表达基因具有微卫星区域，可以用作进行多样性分析的潜在位点。在缺水胁迫下甘蔗中转录因子（TFs）的表达谱也发生了变化。在显示差异表达的TF中，在实时PCR中对5个TF进行了定量，并在测序和实时PCR中均表现出相似的表达模式。本研究提供了对因缺水胁迫而导致的甘蔗转录组变化的见解，从而使人们对缺水胁迫的反应有了更全面的了解。