Transcriptomic analysis of cut tree peony with glucose supply using the RNA-Seq technique

Key message Several unigenes encoding ACS and ERF involved in ethylene biosynthesis and signal transduction were greatly down-regulated in the petal transcriptome of cut tree peony 'Luoyang Hong' with glucose treatment. Glucose also repressed stress-related transcription factor genes DREB, CBF, NAC, WRKY and bHLH. Tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews) is a famous traditional flower in China. Glucose supply prolonging vase life of cut tree peony flowers is associated with its role in the suppression of sensitivity to ethylene and ethylene production, but the regulation mechanism of sugar on ethylene biosynthesis and signaling is unclear. In the present work, a normalized cDNA pool was constructed as the reference transcriptome from mixed petals of different developmental cut tree peony 'Luoyang Hong' and sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq (TM) 2000 platform. We obtained 33,117 unigenes annotated with public protein databases. In addition, the transcriptome change in petals of cut tree peony with glucose supply and the control treatment was investigated. With non-redundant annotation, 173 differentially expressed genes were identified, with 41 up-regulated genes and 132 down-regulated genes. According to RNA-Seq data and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction validation, one unigene encoding ACS, a key ethylene synthetic enzyme, and four unigenes encoding ERF, which is involved in ethylene signal transduction was greatly down-regulated with glucose treatment. Furthermore, stress-related transcription factor genes DREB, CBF, NAC, WRKY and bHLH were also repressed with glucose supply, as well as several other stress-responsive and stress-tolerance genes, indicating that glucose supply probably releases the effects induced by various environmental stress. All the results and analysis are valuable resources for better understanding of the beneficial influence of exogenous sugars on cut tree peony.