摘要
Acorn squash(Cucurbita pepo)is an iconic fall vegetable in the United States,known for its unique fruit shape and also prized for its culinary properties.Little is known about the metabolism that underlies the development of fruit quality attributes such as color,sweetness,texture and nutritional qualities in acorn squash,or any other winter squash grown worldwide.To provide insight into winter squash fruit and seed development and add to the genomic resources in the Cucurbita genus,RNA sequencing was used to generate an acorn squash fruit and seed transcriptome from the cultivar Sweet REBA at critical points throughout fruit development.141838600 high-quality paired-end Illumina reads were assembled into 55949 unigenes.85%of unigenes with predicted open reading frames had homology with previously identified genes and over 62%could be functionally annotated.Comparison with the watermelon and cucumber genomes provided confirmation that the unigenes are full-length and comprehensive,covering an average of 90%of the coding sequence of their homologs and 72%of the cucumber and watermelon exomes.Key candidate genes associated with carotenoid and carbohydrate metabolism were identified toward a resource for winter squash fruit quality trait dissection.This transcriptome represents a major advance in C.pepo genomics,providing significant new sequence information and revealing the repertoire of genes expressed throughout winter squash fruit and seed development.Future studies on the genetic basis of fruit quality and future breeding efforts will be enhanced by tools and insights developed from this resource.
基金
This research was supported through funds from Cornell University and the Vegetable Breeding Institute
Support for Lindsay Wyatt was provided by a Cornell University Presidential Life Sciences Fellowship,USDA National Needs Graduate Fellowship Competitive Grant No.2008-38420-04755 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture
the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant No.2013-67011-21122 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
