Differential genomic arrangements in Caryophyllales through deep transcriptome sequencing of A. hypochondriacus

Genome duplication event in edible dicots under the orders Rosid and Asterid, common during the oligocene period, is missing for species under the order Caryophyllales. Despite this, grain amaranths not only survived this period but display many desirable traits missing in species under rosids and asterids. For example, grain amaranths display traits like C4 photosynthesis, high-lysine seeds, high-yield, drought resistance, tolerance to infection and resilience to stress. It is, therefore, of interest to look for minor genome rearrangements with potential functional implications that are unique to grain amaranths. Here, by deep sequencing and assembly of 16 transcriptomes (86.8 billion bases) we have interrogated differential genome rearrangement unique to Amaranthus hypochondriacus with potential links to these phenotypes. We have predicted 125,581 non-redundant transcripts including 44,529 protein coding transcripts identified based on homology to known proteins and 13,529 predicted as novel/amaranth specific coding transcripts. Of the protein coding de novo assembled transcripts, we have identified 1810 chimeric transcripts. More than 30% and 19% of the gene pairs within the chimeric transcripts are found within the same loci in the genomes of A. hypochondriacus and Beta vulgaris respectively and are considered real positives. Interestingly, one of the chimeric transcripts comprises two important genes, namely DHDPS1, a key enzyme implicated in the biosynthesis of lysine, and alpha-glucosidase, an enzyme involved in sucrose catabolism, in close proximity to each other separated by a distance of 612 bases in the genome of A. hypochondriacus in a convergent configuration. We have experimentally validated that transcripts of these two genes are also overlapping in the 3’ UTR with their expression negatively correlated from bud to mature seed, suggesting a potential link between the high seed lysine trait and unique genome organization.