Transcriptome profiling of Gerbera hybrida reveals that stem bending is caused by water stress and regulation of abscisic acid

BACKGROUND: Gerbera hybrida is one of the most popular cut flowers in the world; however, stem bending, which always happens when gerbera flower harvested from the field, greatly limits its vase life. To date the molecular mechanisms underlying stem bending remain poorly understood. RESULTS: In this study, we performed high-throughput transcriptome sequencing of gerbera during stem bending using the Illumina sequencing technology. Three cDNA libraries constructed from mRNAs of gerbera stem at stem bending stage 0, 2 and 4 were sequenced. More than 300 million high-quality reads were generated and assembled into 96,492 unigenes. Among them, 34,166 unigenes were functionally annotated based on similarity search with known protein. Sequences derived from plants at different stem bending stages were mapped to the assembled transcriptome, and 9,406 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Through Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis, specific pathways were identified during the stem bending process, such as phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway, phenylalanine metabolism pathway, starch and sucrose metabolism pathway, and plant hormone signal transduction pathway. A total of 211 transcription factors (TFs), including TF families involved in plant senescence, such as NAC, MYB, WRKY, and AP2/ERF members, as well as TFs related to water stress tolerance, were shown to be regulated during stem bending. Gene Onotology (GO) functional enrichment analysis indicated that key genes involved in responses to osmotic and oxidative stresses were also varied in expression during this process. Furthermore, analysis of DEGs involved in the hormone signaling pathways and determination of endogenous abscisic acid (ABA) content showed that stem bending may be an ethylene-independent process, but regulated by ABA. In short, our findings suggested that the stem bending of cut gerbera may be caused by the involvement of water stress and regulation of ABA during the postharvest life. CONCLUSIONS: The transcriptome sequences provide a valuable resource in revealing the molecular mechanism underlying stem bending of cut flower and offer novel genes that can be used to guide future studies for ornamental plant breeding. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-019-5961-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.