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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2021

An atlas of the Norway spruce needle seasonal transcriptome

Bag, Pushan; Lihavainen, Jenna; Delhomme, Nicolas; Riquelme, Thomas; Robinson, Kathryn M.; Jansson, Stefan

Abstract

Boreal conifers possess a tremendous ability to survive and remain evergreen during harsh winter conditions and resume growth during summer. This is enabled by coordinated regulation of major cellular functions at the level of gene expression, metabolism, and physiology. Here we present a comprehensive characterization of the annual changes in the global transcriptome of Norway spruce (Picea abies) needles as a resource to understand needle development and acclimation processes throughout the year. In young, growing needles (May 15 until June 30), cell walls, organelles, etc., were formed, and this developmental program heavily influenced the transcriptome, explained by over-represented Gene Ontology (GO) categories. Later changes in gene expression were smaller but four phases were recognized: summer (July-August), autumn (September-October), winter (November-February), and spring (March-April), where over-represented GO categories demonstrated how the needles acclimated to the various seasons. Changes in the seasonal global transcriptome profile were accompanied by differential expression of members of the major transcription factor families. We present a tentative model of how cellular activities are regulated over the year in needles of Norway spruce, which demonstrates the value of mining this dataset, accessible in ConGenIE together with advanced visualization tools.

Keywords

conifers; Norway spruce; transcriptomics; seasonal adaptation; resource

Published in

Plant Journal
2021, Volume: 108, number: 6, pages: 1815-1829
Publisher: WILEY

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Forest Science

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.15530

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/114225