RNA-seq analysis identifies key genes involved in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) shoot development

Abstract

Understanding the mechanism of plant development is particularly important for studying the regulatory genes and their specific functions. Here, we used paired end RNA sequencing to understand the complexity of legume shoot development in a non-model crop chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). A total of 149.5 million paired end reads were obtained from two developmental stages of chickpea shoot. Differential gene expression analysis revealed the enrichment of transcripts associated with shoot development. Validation of few genes showed the reproducibility of our RNA-seq data. Collectively, the present study will not only help to generate a comprehensive organ specific transcriptome map but will also serve as a resource for gene discovery and future crop improvement program.