Effect of Transgenesis on mRNA and miRNA Profiles in Cucumber Fruits Expressing Thaumatin II

Pawełkowicz, Magdalena Ewa; Skarzyńska, Agnieszka; Sroka, Małgorzata; Szwacka, Maria; Pniewski, Tomasz; Pląder, Wojciech

doi:10.3390/genes11030334

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Transgenesis on mRNA and miRNA Profiles in Cucumber Fruits Expressing Thaumatin II

by

Magdalena Ewa Pawełkowicz

^1,*

,

Agnieszka Skarzyńska

¹,

Małgorzata Sroka

¹,

Maria Szwacka

¹,

Tomasz Pniewski

²

and

Wojciech Pląder

^1,*

¹

Department of Plant Genetics, Breeding & Biotechnology, Institute of Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska Street 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland

²

Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Strzeszyńska Street 34, 60-479 Poznan, Poland

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Genes 2020, 11(3), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030334

Submission received: 24 February 2020 / Revised: 12 March 2020 / Accepted: 17 March 2020 / Published: 20 March 2020

(This article belongs to the Section Plant Genetics and Genomics)

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Abstract

Transgenic plants are commonly used in breeding programs because of the various features that can be introduced. However, unintended effects caused by genetic transformation are still a topic of concern. This makes research on the nutritional safety of transgenic crop plants extremely interesting. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is a crop that is grown worldwide. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize differentially expressed genes and regulatory miRNAs in transgenic cucumber fruits that contain the thaumatin II gene, which encodes the sweet-tasting protein thaumatin II, by NGS sequencing. We compared the fruit transcriptomes and miRNomes of three transgenic cucumber lines with wild-type cucumber. In total, we found 47 differentially expressed genes between control and all three transgenic lines. We performed the bioinformatic functional analysis and gene ontology classification. We also identified 12 differentially regulated miRNAs, from which three can influence the two targets (assigned as DEGs) in one of the studied transgenic lines (line 224). We found that the transformation of cucumber with thaumatin II and expression of the transgene had minimal impact on gene expression and epigenetic regulation by miRNA, in the cucumber fruits.

Keywords: transgenic cucumber; thaumatin; RNA-seq; miRNA-seq; transcriptome comparison; unintended effects

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MDPI and ACS Style

Pawełkowicz, M.E.; Skarzyńska, A.; Sroka, M.; Szwacka, M.; Pniewski, T.; Pląder, W. Effect of Transgenesis on mRNA and miRNA Profiles in Cucumber Fruits Expressing Thaumatin II. Genes 2020, 11, 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030334

AMA Style

Pawełkowicz ME, Skarzyńska A, Sroka M, Szwacka M, Pniewski T, Pląder W. Effect of Transgenesis on mRNA and miRNA Profiles in Cucumber Fruits Expressing Thaumatin II. Genes. 2020; 11(3):334. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030334

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pawełkowicz, Magdalena Ewa, Agnieszka Skarzyńska, Małgorzata Sroka, Maria Szwacka, Tomasz Pniewski, and Wojciech Pląder. 2020. "Effect of Transgenesis on mRNA and miRNA Profiles in Cucumber Fruits Expressing Thaumatin II" Genes 11, no. 3: 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030334

APA Style

Pawełkowicz, M. E., Skarzyńska, A., Sroka, M., Szwacka, M., Pniewski, T., & Pląder, W. (2020). Effect of Transgenesis on mRNA and miRNA Profiles in Cucumber Fruits Expressing Thaumatin II. Genes, 11(3), 334. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030334

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Effect of Transgenesis on mRNA and miRNA Profiles in Cucumber Fruits Expressing Thaumatin II

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