Comparative transcriptome profiling of high and low oil yielding Santalum album L

East Indian Sandalwood (Santalum album L.) is highly valued for its heartwood and its oil. There have been no efforts to comparative study of high and low oil yielding genetically identical sandalwood trees grown in similar climatic condition. Thus we intend to study a genome wide transcriptome analysis to identify the corresponding genes involved in high oil biosynthesis in S. album. In this study, 15 years old S. album (SaSHc and SaSLc) genotypes were targeted for analysis to understand the contribution of genetic background on high oil biosynthesis in S. album. A total of 28,959187 and 25,598869 raw PE reads were generated by the Illumina sequencing. 2.12 million and 1.811 million coding sequences were obtained in respective accessions. Based on the GO terms, functional classification of the CDS 21262, & 18113 were assigned into 26 functional groups of three GO categories; (4,168; 3,641) for biological process (5,758;4,971) cellular component and (5,108;4,441) for molecular functions. Total 41,900 and 36,571 genes were functionally annotated and KEGG pathways of the DEGs resulted 213 metabolic pathways. In this, 14 pathways were involved in secondary metabolites biosynthesis pathway in S. album. Among 237 cytochrome families, nine groups of cytochromes were participated in high oil biosynthesis. 16,665 differentially expressed genes were commonly detected in both the accessions (SaHc and SaSLc). The results showed that 784 genes were upregulated and 339 genes were downregulated in SaHc whilst 635 upregulated 299 downregulated in SaSLc S. album. RNA-Seq results were further validated by quantitative RT-PCR. Maximum Blast hits were found to be against Vitis vinifera. From this study, we have identified additional number of cytochrome family in high oil yielding sandalwood accessions (SaHc). The accessibility of a RNA-Seq for high oil yielding sandalwood accessions will have broader associations for the conservation and selection of superior elite samples/populations for further genetic improvement program.

Automated summary

In this study, a genome-wide transcriptome analysis was conducted to identify the genes involved in high oil biosynthesis in East Indian Sandalwood. The results showed the presence of differentially expressed genes and revealed the participation of specific cytochrome families in high oil biosynthesis. These findings can contribute to the genetic improvement program for selecting superior sandalwood specimens with high oil production.