Shedding light on the transcriptome of Polygonum cuspidatum through Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing

The root of Polygonum cuspidatum has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine. Various active components have been extracted from the root of this medicinal plant. In addition, P. cuspidatum is an invasive species and poses threat to the native ecosystem. However, the genetic basis for the above characters is virtually unknown. In the present study, 25,600,002 short reads (2.3 Gb) were obtained via Illumina HiSeq 2000 sequencing. A total of 86,418 Unigenes were assembled de novo and annotated. Based on similarity search with known proteins, 36,694 Unigenes were identified to have the Blast hit with a cut-off E-value above 10-5. ?GO terms and metabolic pathways of the P. cuspidatum root were revealed for the first time. Our data provides the most comprehensive sequence resource available for P. cuspidatum study and will help define mechanisms of tissue specific functions and secondary metabolism in non-model plant organisms.