Next generation sequencing technologies provide opportunities to reveal the genetic variants and differentially expressedgenes. The genetic variants are closely relevance to understanding of genes and phenotypic differences related to agronomic characteristics among cultivars. In this study, we conducted RNA-seq using two Korean soybean accessions, including Daewon and Hwangkeum, by using next generation sequencing against Williams 82 genome as reference. A number of variants such assingle nucleotide variants (SNV), multiple nucleotide variants (MNV), insertion/deletion (InDel) and replacement, was 34,411 and 55,544 in Daewon and Hwangkeum, respectively. Among these variants, 9,611 nonsynonymous variants were detected within 4,290 genes in Daewon and 13,225 non-synonymous variants were located on 5,672 genes in Hwangkeum. The distribution of nonsynonymous variants and expression values of genes can serve as invaluable resource for genotyping and study of traits within genes for soybean improvements.

The interaction between Agrobacterium and soybean has been studied at the transcriptome level but not at the metabolic level. However, it is necessary to investigate the difference in metabolites between susceptible and non-susceptible cultivars for high efficiency transformation. We investigated the difference in metabolites from sonicated soybean cotyledons of Korean cultivars and Bert cultivar. To identify difference in metabolites, sonicated extracts were analysed by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR/MS). The soybean cultivars were classified by susceptibility using green fluorescent protein expression. We found a difference in metabolites between the high susceptible and low susceptible cultivars. The FT-ICR/MS experimental m/z data of different metabolites were compared with theoretical m/z in KNApSAcK database. The candidate list was made using KNApSAcK and focused on phenolic compounds. These candidate metabolites are speculated to influence factors in the interaction. This list of candidates may be useful to investigate the interaction between Agrobacterium and plants to increase transformation efficiency.

Wheat is the third largest crop in the world behind corn and rice. Wheat is grown over a wide range of environments, and an essential source of carbohydrates. However, the genomics of wheat, a non-model species, is still challenging despite of corn and rice was done. The recent advent of RNA-Sequencing, a massively parallel sequencing method for genome and transcriptome analysis, provides opportunity to identify gene discovery and molecular mechanisms of cellular processes. We performed a RNA-Seq experiment to find differentially expressed genes under high temperature condition. More than 344 million shot reads were generated using Illumina HiSeq technology. A comprehensive and integrated 285,324 transcripts were assembled via Trinity by combining tentative consensus sequences. Transcripts annotated by BLAST2Go and differently expressed transcripts were analyzed. A total of 208 up-regulated and 182 down-regulated transcripts were found that involve in plastid, starch and sucrose metabolism, glycerolipid metabolism and glycerolipid and dicarboxylate metabolism. Our results demonstrate that RNA-Seq can be successfully used for gene identification, transcript profiling in wheat. Furthermore these sequences will provide valuable resources for wheat researchers.

For sensitive and accurate gene expression analysis, normalization of gene expression data against housekeeping genes is required. There are conventional housekeeping gene (e.g. ACT) that primarily function as an internal control of transcription. In this study, we performed an in silico analysis of 278 rice gene expression samples (GSM) in order to identify the gene that is most consistently expressed. Based on this analysis, we identified novel candidate housekeeping genes that displayed improved stability among the cross experimental conditions. Furthermore four of the most conventional housekeeping genes were included in our 30 other housekeeping genes among the most stable genes. Therefore, these 30 genes can he used to normalize transcription results in gene expression studies on rice at a broad range of experimental conditions.

MYB proteins are a superfamily of transcription factors (TF) that play regulatory roles in developmental processes and resistance mechanism in plants. We identified 130 and 109 genes in the MYB superfamily from an analysis of the complete Arabidopsis and rice genome sequence. Although microarray based transcriptome analysis approach allows the investigation of the biological networks of MYB TF in DNA level, the underling mechanisms related to their functional role is not fully understood. In this work, we performed meta-analysis of public microarray data that analyzed with Arabidopsis and rice using co-expression analysis. A phylogenetic comparison of the members of this superfamily were performed with Sorghum bicolour to suggested that MYB super family underwent a rapid expansion their evolutionary times. We identified conserved expression pairs which play important role in transcription. Our comprehensive analysis of this huge transcription factor of Arabidopsis and rice may shed further light on the possible biological roles of the MYB TF in various plants.

Rapid extension of genomic database leads to the remarkable advance of functional genomics. This study proposes a novel methodology of functional analysis using 5-methyltrytophan (5 MT) mutant together with their 2-DE analysis and public microarray database. A total of 24 proteins was changed in 5 MT mutant and four remarkably different expressed proteins were identified. Among them, three spots were converted to Affymetrix probe. A total of 155 microarray samples from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) in NCBI was retrieved and followed by constructing gene co-expression networks over a broad range of biological issues through Self-Organising Tree Algorithm. Three co-expressing gene clusters were retrieved and each functional categorization with differential expression pattern was exhibited from 5 MT resistance mutant rice. It was indicated new co-expression networks in the mutant. This study suggests that on investigating possibility which correspond 2-DE to microarray database with their full potential.

The C3HC4 zinc RING finger proteins seem to be a family of protein-protein interactions. Little is information regarding the role of the C3HC4 zinc RING finger proteins in rice plant. We have attempted to assess their genome localization, phylogenetic relationship and expression patterns of members via in silico analysis as well as semi-quantitative RT-PCR. A total of 132 genes encoding C3HC4 zinc RING finger proteins appear to be distributed over 12 rice chromosomes, reflecting evolutionary dynamics of the rice genome, e.g. whole genome duplication and tandem duplications. A genome-wide dataset including 155 gene expression omnibus sample (GSM) plates evidenced a high degree of functional specialization of the rice C3HC4 zinc RING finger proteins, especially during developmental stages and against abiotic stresses. We have retrieved co-expression genes with each of the rice C3HC4 zinc RING finger proteins, probably providing some clues on specialized functions of individual genes. Expression patterns of 13 co-expression genes with one gene encoding C3HC4 zinc RING finger protein (Os04g51400) against salt and dehydration stresses were evaluated in crown tissues and leaf tissues, evidencing highly similar patterns among members. These findings might provide clues to shed further light on comprehensive functions of C3HC4 zinc RING finger proteins.

Most gene functions of biochemical pathways were still unexplored, especially interactions of constituent genes. We attempted to uncover interaction network of biochemical pathways via a survey of co-expression clusters, which we have constructed from the NCBI GEO database, and then to define key genes of networks with expression correlations between members. Top 20 pathways with high numbers of individual genes were retrieved from 178 pathways. One pathway, ‘removal of superoxide radicals’ was excluded for further study, evidencing somewhat low degree (16%, 13 out of 79 genes) of mapped probes. We employed expression correlations of random pairs of 1,000 randomly selected genes for determining a cut off r-value for gene networks. Numbers of interactions with a significant expression correlation values between members might evidence that “hub genes” play key roles among a given pathway genes. For example most interactive pathway, ‘tRNA charging pathway’, that is composed of 60 probes corresponding to genes showed 264 positive significant interactions between members of 47 genes while 5 negative interactions between members of 7 genes., evidencing ‘Os10g26050’ (methionyl-tRNA synthetase) gene with highest interactions is suggestive of a hub gene. These findings might provide some clues on evolutionary fate of co-expression genes including each of biochemical pathways, e.g. convergent evolution

The genetic diversity was evaluated using RAPD and ISSR among natural populations and Korean wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum). Understanding the genetic diversity of putative parental and wild stocks would be useful in wheat breeding programs. Ninety three populations were evaluated with fifty RAPD and three ISSR primers. A total of 185 RAPD and ISSR polymorphism were produced. These markers were considered to estimate the genetic distance among accessions. The genetic similarity ranged from 0.41 to 0.86. The dendrogram were constructed by using the UPGMA clustering algorithm based on genetic similarity. The genetic diversity within and among accession was assessed through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for statistics analysis. In cluster analysis, four groups were clustered and 17 accessions were not clustered. The PCA was corresponded well to the result. This study provides basic information about the genetic relationships for breeding purposes.