Dataset of transcriptome assembly of date palm embryogenic calli and functional annotation

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.; 2n = 36; Arecaceae), cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical regions worldwide, is a staple food for people in the Middle East region and has economic value throughout the world. Tissue culture is considered as a feasible technique for the large-scale multiplication of elite date palm varieties. In this article, we report the transcriptome assembly from the embryogenic calli of Khalas variety of date palm. A total of 50,852,331 paired-end (PE) raw reads were acquired using an Illumina sequencing platform. Reference-based assembly, with date palm genome, resulted in 53251 transcripts. A total of 63888 Gene Ontology (GO) terms could be annotated from the assembled transcriptome. Also, transcription factor families and small RNAs were annotated from the assembled transcriptome. Results of the pathway analysis revealed that a total of 2584 transcripts were involved in various metabolic pathways. Transcripts with possible roles in somatic embryogenesis were also identified. The dataset provides insights into the expression pattern of various genes during early somatic embryogenesis in date palm.