Genomic annotation and expression profile of drought responsive genes in acanthostachys pitcairnioides

• Grant number: 22/08869-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: May 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Marília Gaspar Maïs
• Grantee: Fabrício Zara Frizo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisas Ambientais (IPA). Secretaria de Meio Ambiente, Infraestrutura e Logística (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/50341-0 - Challenges for biodiversity conservation facing climate changes, pollution, land use and occupation (PDIp), AP.PDIP

Abstract

The genus Acanthostachys (Bromeliaceae) is monophyletic and comprises only three species, A. pitcairnioides, A. strobilacea and A. calcicola. Adult plants of these species withstand adverse conditions due to the presence of drought adaptations such as succulence, absorptive leaf trichomes, and CAM metabolism. A. pitcairnioides is endemic to Brazil and occurs in areas of the Atlantic Forest, having been considered "Vulnerable" (VU) on the Red List of Flora do Espírito Santo and "Data Deficient" (DD) on the CNCFlora Red List. A recent experiment with A. pitcairnioides plants showed a high tolerance of the species to water suspension for long periods, from 40 to 90 days, with pigment accumulation and maintenance of practically unchanged osmotic potential. A. pitcairnioides had its genome recently sequenced in the context of the PDIP-IBt project, using the highly accurate long-read sequencing technology (HiFi). A. pticairnioides shows low heterozygosity and about 25% of repeated fragments along its genome, in addition to high collinearity with the genome of Ananas comosus (pineapple), with more than 85% of orthologous genes. About 27,000 predicted genes were identified, a number close to that found in the pineapple genome. This project aims to extract RNA and prepare libraries from material from a drought experiment of A. pticairnioides, aiming at RNA sequencing (transcriptomic analysis), which will allow the identification of drought-responsive genes, in addition to providing data for annotation of the genome of the species in a related project (PD Camilla Alves Santos, PDIP-IBt grant (FAPESP 2020/11908-7).(AU)