Metasequoia glyptostroboides Raw sequence reads

The seeds of Metasequia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng, an endangered species, are susceptible to aging, making natural population renewal difficult and increasing the risk of extinction. LncRNAs play important roles in plant growth and development, biotic and abiotic stress responses, but the functions of lncRNAs in the aging process of M. glyptostroboides seeds are still unclear. In this study, we used single molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology in combination with illumina RNA-seq to analyze lncRNA changes during Metasequoia seed aging. We identified 420 intergenic lncRNAs (lincRNAs), 29 intronic lncRNAs, 25 antisense lncRNAs and screened 9000 differential expressed mRNAs (DEGs) and 128 differential expressed lncRNAs (DELs), and 844 cis-target genes and 8098 trans-target genes were predicted. GO and KEGG functional annotation of target genes revealed that the regulation of reactive oxygen species metabolic process, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, MAPK signaling pathway- plant and other pathways were significantly enriched, which showed a high correlation with the mRNA enrichment results. In addition, we constructed a ceRNA network consisting of 18 lncRNAs, 38 miRNAs, and 69 mRNAs, in which some miRNAs and mRNAs related to seed aging were found, Among them, lncRNA_00185 may compete with miR167(a,b,c,d), which is related to plant aging, to regulate the expression of RCD1(Radical-induced Cell Death1) gene, so as to promote the balance of seed reactive oxygen species and enhance seed aging resistance. These results will have significant reference value in elucidating the molecular mechanism of seed aging of metasequoia sequoia, improving the storage capacity of crop seeds, and protecting rare germplasm resources.