Transcriptome profile analysis of cell proliferation molecular processes during multicellular trichome formation induced by tomato Wo(v) gene in tobacco

BACKGROUND: Trichomes, developing from the epidermis of nearly all terrestrial plants, provide good structural resistance against insect herbivores and an excellent model for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying cell fate determination. Regulation of trichomes in Rosids has been well characterized. However, little is known about the cell proliferation molecular processes during multicellular trichome formation in Asterids. RESULTS: In this study, we identified two point mutations in a novel allele (Wo(v)) at Wo locus. Ectopic expression of Wo(v) in tobacco and potato induces much more trichome formation than wild type. To gain new insights into the underlying mechanisms during the processes of these trichomes formation, we compared the gene expression profiles between Wo(v) transgenic and wild-type tobacco by RNA-seq analysis. A total of 544 co-DEGs were detected between transgenic and wild-type tobacco. Functional assignments of the co-DEGs indicated that 33 reliable pathways are altered in transgenic tobacco plants. The most noticeable pathways are fatty acid metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction. Results suggest that these enhanced processes are critical for the cell proliferation during multicellular trichome formation in transgenic plants. In addition, the transcriptional levels of homologues of trichome regulators in Rosids were not significantly changed, whereas homologues of genes (Wo and SlCycB2) in Asterids were significantly upregulated in Wo(v) transgenic tobacco plants. CONCLUSIONS: This study presents a global picture of the gene expression changes induced by Wo(v)- gene in tobacco. And the results provided us new insight into the molecular processes controlling multicellular formation in tobacco. Furthermore, we inferred that trichomes in solanaceous species might share a common network. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2099-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.