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Transcriptome analysis of heat stressed seedlings with or without pre-heat treatment in Cryptomeria japonica

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Abstract

With global warming as a major environment concern over the coming years, heat tolerance is an important trait for forest tree survival during the predicted future warmer weather conditions. Cryptomeria japonica is a coniferous species widely distributed throughout Japan, and thus, can adapt to a wide range of air temperatures. To elucidate genes involved in heat response in Cryptomeria japonica, transcriptome analysis was conducted for seedlings under heat shock conditions. To test whether heat acclimation affects levels of gene expression, half of the seedlings were pretreated with moderately high temperatures prior to heat shock. De novo assembly of the transcriptome generated 107,924 unigenes and the analysis of differentially expressed genes was conducted using these unigenes. A total of 5217 differentially expressed genes were identified. Most genes upregulated by heat shock, regardless of pre-heat treatment, were conserved to heat response genes of angiosperm species, such as heat shock factors (Hsf) and heat shock proteins (Hsp). Pre-heating of seedlings affected expression levels of several Hsfs and their induction was lower in pre-heated seedlings than in seedlings without pre-heat treatment. This suggests a conserved role of Hsfs in heat response and heat acclimation in seed plants. On the other hand, many unknown genes were upregulated in only seedlings without pre-heat treatment after heat exposure. Notably, expression of gypsy/Ty3 type retrotransposons was dramatically induced. These findings provide valuable information to develop a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of heat response and acclimation in C. japonica.

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Data availability

The raw sequence data from this study have been deposited at the DDBJ Sequence Read Archive (DRA), accession no. DRA009205.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Igasaki and Dr. Murata for their helpful comments.

Funding

This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (Grant Number 25660128) and was partially supported by the FFPRI Encouragement Model in Support of Researchers with Family Responsibilities of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute.

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  1. Ecological Genetics Laboratory, Department of Forest Genetics, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8687, Japan

    Tokuko Ujino-Ihara

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  1. Tokuko Ujino-Ihara
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Correspondence to Tokuko Ujino-Ihara.

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Ujino-Ihara, T. Transcriptome analysis of heat stressed seedlings with or without pre-heat treatment in Cryptomeria japonica. Mol Genet Genomics 295, 1163–1172 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-020-01689-3

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