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Plant Genomics 2019
June 13-14, 2019
Berlin, Germany
Asian Journal of Plant Science & Research
ISSN: 2249-7412 Page 30
Plant Genomics
5th Edition of International Conference on
Jimena Cascales et al., AJPSKY 2019, Volume 09
Survey of differentially methylated and expressed genes in
vegetative and reproductive organs of two Ilex species
Jimena Cascales, Mariana Julia Garberoglio and Alexandra Marina Gottlieb
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Ilex paraguariensis and I. dumosa (Aquifoliaceae) are
dioecious perennial trees native to southern Brazil,
northwestern Argentina, northeastern Paraguay and
Uruguay. The aerial parts of I. paraguariensis the ‘yerba
mate’ are used to prepare the ‘mate’ infusion which
has a great cultural and socio-economic value in many
southern South American countries. This species
produces several secondary metabolites, many with
nutraceutical properties. Ilex dumosa is a valuable
gene/allelic reservoir as it produces significantly lower
contents of such compounds and shows resistance to an
I. paraguariensis’ hemipteran plague. Themechanisms of
sex determination are unknown in Ilex, while metabolic
and defense pathways have been proposed only for I.
paraguariensis. The knowledge derived from intra- and
interspecific comparisons could be applied in genetic
improvement programs of the ‘yerba mate’ crop, as
well as to enhance the harvest period. The present
comparative study focused in detecting epigenetic and
gene expression differences between sexes and species,
by screening flower buds and vegetative organs (young
and adult leaves). For this, MSAP Methylation Sensitive
Amplified Polymorphism and cDNA-AFLP techniques
were used. A total of 103 isolated differential fragments
were effectively characterized with bioinformatic tools,
considering ≤10-5 E-value. Of these, 46.6% derive from
I. paraguariensis and 53.4% from I. dumosa; 63% were
recovered from reproductive and 37% from vegetative
organs. Thirty-five percent of the fragments were
identified as related to: metabolism (7.8%), regulation of
gene expression (7.8%), biotic/abiotic stress resistance
(3.9%), and other cellular processes (15.5%). Additionally,
three groups of genes were distinguished: a) potentially
involved in sexual determination (9 sequences), b)
secondary metabolite production (3 sequences),
and c) biotic stress resistance (6 sequences).The
methodological approach allowed detecting differentially
represented genes, which would be worth validating in
qPCR studies.
Biography
Jimena Cascales is a postdoctoral scholar with expertise in
population genetics, epigenetics and gene expression analysis
of Ilex paraguariensis and I. dumosa.