Transcriptome and translatome comparison of tissues from Arabidopsis thaliana

Translation is one of the multiple complementary steps that orchestrates gene activity. In contrast to the straightforwardness of transcriptional surveys, genome-wide profiles of the translational landscape of plant cells remain technically challenging and are less well explored. Protein-coding genes are expressed at a variable degree of efficiency, resulting in pronounced discordance among the regulatory levels that govern gene activity. Ribo-Seq is an extremely useful tool for estimating translation efficiency, but limited data sets are available for plants. Here, we compare inventories of expressed and translated RNA populations, generated by mRNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) and ribosome footprinting (Ribo-Seq) of shoots and roots of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Our data set provides information on the translational fitness of protein-coding mRNAs and lncRNAs that may aid in obtaining a comprehensive picture of the regulatory levels governing genes activity across the genome.