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De novo sequencing and analysis of the lily pollen transcriptome: an open access data source for an orphan plant species

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Abstract

Pollen grains of Lilium longiflorum are a long-established model system for pollen germination and tube tip growth. Due to their size, protein content and almost synchronous germination in synthetic media, they provide a simple system for physiological measurements as well as sufficient material for biochemical studies like protein purifications, enzyme assays, organelle isolation or determination of metabolites during germination and pollen tube elongation. Despite recent progresses in molecular biology techniques, sequence information of expressed proteins or transcripts in lily pollen is still scarce. Using a next generation sequencing strategy (RNAseq), the lily pollen transcriptome was investigated resulting in more than 50 million high quality reads with a length of 90 base pairs. Sequenced transcripts were assembled and annotated, and finally visualized with MAPMAN software tools and compared with other RNAseq or genome data including Arabidopsis pollen, Lilium vegetative tissues and the Amborella trichopoda genome. All lily pollen sequence data are provided as open access files with suitable tools to search sequences of interest.

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Acknowledgments

The project was partially financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF grant no. P21298), the Stiftungs- und Fördergesellschaft of the Univ. Salzburg and by the University priority program “BioScience and Health”. BU thanks the BMBF for funding through the primary database FKZ 0315961 and the state NRW–BioSC for the project PNP-Express. We thank Professors Dr. Zhongshan Gao, Dept. Horticulture, Zhejiang Univ., China, and Dr. Paul Arens, Wageningen Univ., The Netherlands, for providing data of the RNAseq study on Lilium oriental hybrid tissue and on L. longiflorum leaf tissue, respectively.

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  1. Molecular Plant Biophysics and Biochemistry, Depatment of Molecular Biology, University of Salzburg, Billrothstr.11, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Veronika Lang & Gerhard Obermeyer

  2. Institute of Biology I (Botany), RWTH Aachen, Worringer Weg 3, 52074, Aachen, Germany

    Björn Usadel

  3. IBG-2 Pflanzenwissenschaften, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Wilhelm-Johnen-Strasse, 52428, Jülich, Germany

    Björn Usadel

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  1. Veronika Lang
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Lang, V., Usadel, B. & Obermeyer, G. De novo sequencing and analysis of the lily pollen transcriptome: an open access data source for an orphan plant species. Plant Mol Biol 87, 69–80 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-014-0261-2

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