Large-scale RNA-seq Transcriptomics Studies Exploring Wood Development and Natural Variation in Aspen (P. tremula): Projects and Resource Development

Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC) has undertaken a number of large-scale RNA-Seq based transcriptomics studies to further explore wood development, natural variation in expression and to support our de novo genome assembly efforts in Swedish aspen (Populus tremula). We will overview the projects and key findings to date. In particular we will describe the Wood Sequencing project: Replicated samples were collected from a clonal aspen stand at the peak of seasonal wood growth and 30 cryo-sections were collected from each sample. These sections have been profiled for mRNA and short RNA expression to provide the most detailed and comprehensive view of gene expression patterns in developing wood. The data is part of a larger study including metabolomics and proteomics profiling following an integrated systems biology approach to further understanding of wood development. To support the availability of genome-wide transcriptomics data we have updated the (Populus Genome Integrative Explorer) PopGenIE resource with integrated tools for exploring gene co-expression networks and patterns of gene expression in transcriptomics studies. We will briefly demonstrate the new tools available.