Transcriptome analysis of potato phosphorus-tolerant variety seedlings (Atlantic) revealing the gene expression profile under low phosphorus stress.

Phosphorus (Pi) is one of several essential plant macronutrients. Potato is the fourth largest food crop in the world, and potato tuber quality is significantly affected by Pi. The potato variety “Atlantic” has been reported to have a strong tolerance to low Pi conditions; however, the molecular mechanism by which this tolerance occurs remains unclear. In this study, we used 454 GS FLX sequencing technology to investigate the mixed transcriptional profile of this tolerant potato variety after 3, 6, 12, and 24 h of exposure to Pi-deficient conditions. A final Pi concentration of treatment was 10 µM. A total of 29,563 unigenes were assembled after sequencing. Of them, 27,255 (92.2%) were annotated using multiple public protein and nucleotide databases. They were categorized into 33 GO functional groups and 220 KEGG pathways, and 5,361 unigenes were assigned to 24 COG groups. Additionally, 733 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified. Real-time PCR was performed to confirm the validity of the sequencing data. Furthermore, we have found 5 most important genes that are active under Pi deficiency such as ribulose diphosphate carboxylase, ribosomal protein, photosystem I and II reaction center, elongation factor and glycolytic enzymes . Our study is the first comprehensive transcriptome analysis of a Pi-tolerant potato variety under low Pi stress. Our results provide useful information that may facilitate further research of important genes involved in plant adaptation to low Pi conditions.