The key genes and pathways related to male sterility of eggplant revealed by comparative transcriptome analysis

BACKGROUND: Male sterility (MS) is an effective tool for hybrid production. Although MS has been widely reported in other plants, such as Arabidopsis and rice, the molecular mechanism of MS in eggplant is largely unknown. To understand the mechanism, the comparative transcriptomic file of MS line and its maintainer line was analyzed with the RNA-seq technology. RESULTS: A total of 11,7695 unigenes were assembled and 19,652 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained. The results showed that 1,716 DEGs were shared in the three stages. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that these DEGs were mainly involved in oxidation-reduction, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. Moreover, transcriptional regulation was also the impact effector for MS and anther development. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) showed two modules might be responsible for MS, which was similar to hierarchical cluster analysis. CONCLUSIONS: A number of genes and pathways associated with MS were found in this study. This study threw light on the molecular mechanism of MS and identified several key genes related to MS in eggplant. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1430-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.