USE OF DIGITAL GENE EXPRESSION TO DISCRIMINATE GENE EXPRESSION IN DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF ROSA CHINENSIS 'PALLIDA'

Rosa chinensis ‘Pallida’ (Rosa L.) is one of the most important ancient rose cultivars originating in China. It contributed the ‘tea scent’ trait to modern roses. However, very little information available on the gene regulatory networks was involved in scent biosynthesis and metabolism in Rosa. In this study, digital gene expression (DGE) profiling was used to measure the gene expression in flower bud, bloom and senescent development stages. A total of 16,223 transcripts exhibited significant expression change among the three libraries. KEGG pathways analysis showed that specific enrichment of genes was observed for pathways involved in phenylpropanoid and terpenoid backbone biosynthesis in the three developmental stages. Five transcripts encoding putative proteins related to scent synthesis were identified and their expressions were validated using qRT-PCR. The study provides the foundation for scent-related gene discovery and development of functional molecular markers in roses.