Plant Biotechnology

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol. 11 No. 2, Issue of April 15, 2008
© 2008 by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso -- Chile Received August 13, 2007 / Accepted December 6, 2007
DOI: 10.2225/vol11-issue2-fulltext-14
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Generation and analysis of an Eucalyptus globulus cDNA library constructed from seedlings subjected to low temperature conditions

Susana Rasmussen-Poblete
Facultad Ciencias de la Salud
Universidad Andres Bello
Republica 252, Santiago, Chile
Fundación Ciencia para la Vida
Zañartu 1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Tel: 56 2 2383178
Fax: 56 2 2372259
E-mail: susana.rasmussen@bionova.cl

Jorge Valdes
Facultad Ciencias de la Salud
Universidad Andres Bello
Republica 252, Santiago, Chile
Center for Bioinformatics and Genome Biology
Zañartu 1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Tel: 56 2 2383178
Fax: 56 2 2372259
E-mail: jorge.valdes@gmail.com

Maria Cecilia Gamboa
Facultad Ciencias de la Salud
Universidad Andres Bello
Republica 252, Santiago, Chile
Fundación Ciencia para la Vida
Zañartu 1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Tel: 56 2 2383178
Fax: 56 2 2372259
E-mail: cecy_gamboa@yahoo.es

Pablo D.T. Valenzuela
Facultad Ciencias de la Salud
Universidad Andres Bello
Republica 252, Santiago, Chile
Fundación Ciencia para la Vida
Zañartu 1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Millenium Institute For Fundamental and Applied Biology
Zañartu 1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Tel: 56 2 2398969
Fax: 56 2 2372259
E-mail: pvalenzu@bionova.cl

Erwin Krauskopf*
Facultad Ciencias de la Salud
Universidad Andres Bello
Republica 252, Santiago, Chile
Fundación Ciencia para la Vida
Zañartu 1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Millenium Institute For Fundamental and Applied Biology
Zañartu 1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
1482, Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile
Tel: 56 2 2383178
Fax: 56 2 2398969
E-mail: ekrauskopf@unab.cl

*Corresponding author

Financial support: This work was partially funded by Universidad Andrés Bello (DI Proyect: 04-05/1) and MIFAB (Proyect: P04-071-F) and by the Microsoft Joint Research Program.

Keywords: cellulose, cold-temperature, EST database, forest biotechnology, lignin.

Note: The sequences have been deposited in GenBank. Accession numbers: ES588357-ES597093

Abbreviations:

4CL: CoA ligase
AUX/IAA: auxin/indole-3-acetic acid
bZIP: basic leucine zip
C3H: p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase
C4H: 4-hydroxylase
CAD: cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase
CCR: cinnamoyl CoA reductase
CCoAOMT: caffeoyl-CoA 3-O-methyltransferase
ESTs: expressed sequence tags
F5H: ferulate 5-hydroxylase
GO: gene ontology
HCT: hydroxycinnamoyltransferase
PAL: phenylalanine ammonia lyase

Abstract   Full Text

Eucalyptus globulus is the most important commercial temperate hardwood in the world because of its wood properties and due to its characteristics for biofuel production. However, only a very low number of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are publicly available for this tree species. We constructed a cDNA from E. globulus seedlings subjected to low temperature and sequenced 9,913 randomly selected clones, generating 8,737 curated ESTs. The assembly produced 1,062 contigs and 3,879 singletons forming a Eucalyptus unigene set. Based on BLASTX analysis, 89.3% of the contigs and 88.5% of the singletons had significant similarity to known genes in the non-redundant database of GenBank. The Eucalyptus unigene set generated is a valuable public resource that provides an initial model for genes and regulatory pathways involved in cell wall biosynthesis at low temperature.

Supported by UNESCO / MIRCEN network