Transcriptome analysis of the induction of somatic embryogenesis in Coffea canephora and the participation of ARF and Aux/IAA genes

BACKGROUND: Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is a useful biotechnological tool to study the morpho-physiological, biochemical and molecular processes during the development of Coffea canephora. Plant growth regulators (PGR) play a key role during cell differentiation in SE. The Auxin-response-factor (ARF) and Auxin/Indole-3-acetic acid (Aux/IAA) are fundamental components involved in the signaling of the IAA. The IAA signaling pathway activates or represses the expression of genes responsive to auxins during the embryogenic transition of the somatic cells. The growing development of new generation sequencing technologies (NGS), as well as bioinformatics tools, has allowed us to broaden the landscape of SE study of various plant species and identify the genes directly involved. METHODS: Analysis of transcriptome expression profiles of the C. canephora genome and the identification of a particular set of differentially expressed genes (DEG) during SE are described in this study. RESULTS: A total of eight ARF and seven Aux/IAA differentially expressed genes were identified during the different stages of the SE induction process. The quantitative expression analysis showed that ARF18 and ARF5 genes are highly expressed after 21 days of the SE induction, while Aux/IAA7 and Aux/IAA12 genes are repressed. DISCUSSION: The results of this study allow a better understanding of the genes involved in the auxin signaling pathway as well as their expression profiles during the SE process.