A cDNA microarray analysis of the molecular control of poplar wood properties

Abstract

Molecular biological research into wood development and formation has been the focus in recent years, but the pace of discovery of related genes and their functions in the control of wood properties has been slow. The microarray technique—with its advantages of high throughput capacity, sensitivity, and reliability over other tools developed for investigating genes expression patterns—is capable of rapidly assaying thousands of genes. In this study, a cDNA microarray prepared from two cDNA libraries of developing poplar xylem tissues was used to assay gene expression patterns in immature xylem tissues at different heights from the main stem of Populus deltoides (15 years old), which was confirmed to have distinct wood properties (microfibrillar angle, woody density) by X-ray. Two hundred seventy-four transcripts with differential expression profiles between the chips were screened out, and the individual clones were subjected to 5′ sequencing. Using bioinformatic analysis, we identified candidate genes that may influence poplar wood properties, many of which belong to various regulatory and signal transduction gene families, such as zinc finger protein transcription factor, DNA-binding transcription factor, ethylene response factors, and so on. The results suggest that these genes may regulate enzymes involved in wood formation. Further work will be performed to clone these genes and determine how they influence poplar wood properties.

Keywords

Populus deltoides / cDNA microarray / Expression profile / Wood density / Microfibrillar angle

References

[1] Allona I, Quinn M, Shoop E, Swope K, St Cyr SS, Carlis J, Ried J, REtzel E, Campbel MM, Sederoff R, Whetten RW. 1998. Analysis of xylem formation in pine by cDNA sequencing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 95: 9693-9698

[2] Arioli T, Burn JE, Willianmson RE. Jain SM, Minocha SC. Molecular biology of cellulose biosynthesis. Molecular Biology of Woody Plants, 2000, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers 205 226

[3] Chaffey N. Microfibril orientation in wood cells: new angles on an old topic. Trends Plant Sci, 2000, 5: 138-151.

[4] Christophe P, Gre´goire L, Alexia S. Wood Formation in Trees. Plant Physiol, 2001, 127: 1513-1523.

[5] Esau K. Plant Anatomy, 1965, New York: Wiley 57

[6] Higuchi T. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Wood, 1997, New York: Springer-Verlag 131 181

[7] Keegstra K, Raikhel N. Plant glycosyltransferases. Curr Opin Plant Biol, 2001, 4: 219-224.

[8] Lacombe E, Van Doorsselaere J, Boerjan W, Boudet AM, Grima-Pettenati J. Characterization of Cis-element required for vascular expression of the cinnamoyl CoA reductase gene and for protein-DNA complex formation. Plant J, 2000, 23: 663-676.

[9] Meylan BA. Cause of high longitudinal shrinkage in wood. For Prod J, 1968, 18(4): 75-78.

[10] Meylan BA. The influence of microfibril angle on the longitudinal shrinkage-moisture content relationship. Wood Sci Technol, 1972, 4(4): 293-301.

[11] Nieminen KM, Kauppinen L, Helariutta Y. A weed for wood? Arabidopsis as a genetic model for xylem development. Plant Physiol, 2004, 135: 653-659.

[12] Raemodonck DV, Pesquet E, Cloquet S, Beeckman H, Boerjan W, Goffner D, Jaziri M, Baucher M. Molecular changes associated with the setting up of secondary growth in aspen. J Exp Bot, 2005, 56(418): 2211-2227.

[13] Sundberg B, Uggla C, Tuominen H. Savidge RA, Barnett JR, Napier R. Cambial growth and auxin gradient. Cell and molecular biology of wood formation, 2000, Oxford: Bios Scientific 169 188

[14] Takele D, Robert K. Shepard.1999. Wood properties of red pine. Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment station Miscellaneous Report 412

[15] Timell TE. Compression Wood in Gymnosperms, 1986, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag 157 167

[16] Zhong R, Burk DH, Morrison WH, Ye ZH. A kinesin-like protein is essential for oriented deposition of cellulose microfibrils and cell wall strength. Plant Cell, 2002, 12: 3101-3117.