Genome draft of the Arabidopsis relative Pachycladon cheesemanii reveals novel strategies to tolerate New Zealand’s high ultraviolet B radiation environment

• Published in: BMC genomics Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 838 - 14
• Main Authors: Dong, Yanni, Gupta, Saurabh, Sievers, Rixta, Wargent, Jason J., Wheeler, David, Putterill, Joanna, Macknight, Richard, Gechev, Tsanko, Mueller-Roeber, Bernd, Dijkwel, Paul P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 12.11.2019; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Analysis; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Arabidopsis; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis - radiation effects; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brassicaceae - genetics; Brassicaceae - metabolism; Brassicaceae - radiation effects; DNA Repair; Genetic research; Genome assembly; Genome, Plant; Genomes; Genomics; Life Sciences; Microarrays; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; New Zealand; Novels; Pachycladon; Phylogeny; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant genomics; Proteomics; Radiation (Physics); Research Article; Synteny; Ultraviolet Rays; UV-B tolerance; New Zealand; Jamaica; Abiotic stress; UV-B tolerance; Genome assembly; Pachycladon; Arabidopsis
• ISSN: 1471-2164; 1471-2164
• DOI: 10.1186/s12864-019-6084-4

Background Pachycladon cheesemanii is a close relative of Arabidopsis thaliana and is an allotetraploid perennial herb which is widespread in the South Island of New Zealand. It grows at altitudes of up to 1000 m where it is subject to relatively high levels of ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation. To gain first insights into how Pachycladon copes with UV-B stress, we sequenced its genome and compared the UV-B tolerance of two Pachycladon accessions with those of two A. thaliana accessions from different altitudes. Results A high-quality draft genome of P. cheesemanii was assembled with a high percentage of conserved single-copy plant orthologs. Synteny analysis with genomes from other species of the Brassicaceae family found a close phylogenetic relationship of P. cheesemanii with Boechera stricta from Brassicaceae lineage I. While UV-B radiation caused a greater growth reduction in the A. thaliana accessions than in the P. cheesemanii accessions, growth was not reduced in one P. cheesemanii accession. The homologues of A. thaliana UV-B radiation response genes were duplicated in P. cheesemanii , and an expression analysis of those genes indicated that the tolerance mechanism in P. cheesemanii appears to differ from that in A. thaliana . Conclusion Although the P. cheesemanii genome shows close similarity with that of A. thaliana , it appears to have evolved novel strategies allowing the plant to tolerate relatively high UV-B radiation.