Transcriptome analysis of sugarcane and metabolic changes along the plant maturation cycle

Abstract

The sugarcane has a significant contribution in Brazilian economy context, it is used as an alternative fuel source and for sugar production, and has great potential to overcome the challenges related to fossil fuels. Molecular studies were performed with the sugarcane until the present moment; such as sequencing of EST's (Expressed Sequence Tags) by SUCEST project. Studies of gene expression and metabolome of sugarcane were also conducted in order to get a better understand in the process of sucrose accumulation in varying environmental conditions. Aiming interest in the genetic improvement for the production of new cultivars, many mechanisms still require a greater understanding. This project has as main objectives: (i) realize a jointly analysis of the data from transcriptomics and metabolomics obtained from samples of a commercial sugarcane variety along some points of maturation in the production cycle using LC-MS platform; (II) implement bioinformatics tools for identifying the metabolites; III) implement or developing bioinformatics tools for analyzing altered pathways in different tissues and experimental points and (IV) implement or develop bioinformatics tools for the integration of transcriptome and metabolome data. It is expected that an integrated analysis of identified genes in genome sequencing of sugarcane, with their expression data in different plant tissues at levels of metabolites related to their metabolic pathways might help in defining major target networks or genes to be manipulated for improving plant productivity and increase sucrose content. (AU)