Multi-strategic RNA-seq analysis reveals a high-resolution transcriptional landscape in cotton

Nat Commun. 2019 Oct 17;10(1):4714. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12575-x.

Abstract

Cotton is an important natural fiber crop, however, its comprehensive and high-resolution gene map is lacking. Here we integrate four complementary high-throughput techniques, including Pacbio long read Iso-seq, strand-specific RNA-seq, CAGE-seq, and PolyA-seq, to systematically explore the transcription landscape across 16 tissues or different organ types in Gossypium arboreum. We devise a computational pipeline, named IGIA, to reconstruct accurate gene structures from the integrated data. Our results reveal a dynamic and diverse transcriptional map in cotton: tissue-specific gene expression, alternative usage of TSSs and polyadenylation sites, hotspot of alternative splicing, and transcriptional read-through. These regulated events affect many genes in various aspects such as gain or loss of functional RNA motifs and protein domains, fine-tuning of DNA binding activity, and co-regulation for genes in the same complex or pathway. The methods and findings provide valuable resources for further functional genomic studies such as understanding natural SNP variations for plant community.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alternative Splicing / genetics
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant*
  • Gene Ontology
  • Genes, Plant / genetics
  • Genomics / methods
  • Gossypium / genetics*
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / methods*
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Polyadenylation / genetics
  • RNA-Seq / methods*
  • Transcriptome*