De novo assembly and characterization of leaf and floral transcriptomes of the hybridizing bromeliad species (Pitcairnia spp.) adapted to Neotropical Inselbergs

We present the leaf and floral transcriptomes of two hybridizing bromeliad species that differ in their major pollinator systems. Here we identified candidate genes responsible for pollinator attraction and reproductive isolation in these two species. We searched for candidate genes involved in floral traits, such as color. Approximately 34 Gbp of cDNA sequence data were produced from both tissues and species, resulting in a total of 424,506,914 raw reads. The de novo-assembled transcriptomes consisted of a total of 263,955 contigs, further clustered into 110,977 unigenes. Over 58% of the unigenes were functionally annotated and assigned to one or more Gene Ontology terms. The transcriptomes revealed 144 unique transcripts that encode key enzymes in the flavonoid and anthocyanin biosynthesis pathways. The domain/family annotation and phylogenetic analysis allowed us to infer, by homology, potential functions of the genes encoding MYB, HD-ZIP, and bZIP-HY5 transcription factors, as well ...