Conservation and functional influence of alternative splicing in wood formation of Populus and Eucalyptus

BACKGROUND: Wood formation in tree species is regulated by multiple factors at various layers. Alternative splicing (AS) occurs within a large number of genes in wood formation. However, the functional implications and conservation of the AS occurrence are not well understood. RESULTS: In this study, we profiled AS events in wood-forming tissues of Populus and Eucalyptus, and analyzed their functional implications as well as inter-species conservation. 28.3% and 20.7% of highly expressed transcripts in the developing xylem of Populus and Eucalyptus respectively were affected by AS events. Around 42% of the AS events resulted in changes to the original reading frame. 25.0% (in Populus) and 26.8% (in Eucalyptus) of the AS events may cause protein domain modification. In the process of wood formation, about 28% of AS-occurring genes were putative orthologs and 71 conserved AS events were identified in the two species. CONCLUSION: Through analysis of AS events in developing xylem of two tree species, this study reveals an array of new information regarding AS occurrence and function in tree development. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-780) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.