Differential gene expression analysis of drought responsive sense and antisense genes in Populus

In this study we employ a strand-specific RNA-seq appoach and stranded gene expression analysis tools to identify drought responsive antisense gene loci and sense-antisense gene pairs in Populus. we generated and sequenced 28 strand-specific cDNA libraries derived from either leaf or root tissues of Populus trichocarpa plants associaed with both short-term drought (24 hours of water stress of 40% of field capacity) and long-term drought ( 25 days of water stress of 40% of field capacity) . We mapped over 71 billion nucleotides to Populus genome. Our data demonstrates that with the current sequence depth ~ 19 % of Populus genome undergoes antisense transcription subjected to drought regulation. All in all we have identified that in root tissues 524 differentially expressed antisense genes and 247 drought-responsive SA gene pairs which are significantly regulated by drought (padj <0.05). Taken all data from both drought treatments, we have identified 1185 unique drought-responsive antisense gene loci and 606 drought-responsive SA gene pairs (padj <0.05). Overall design: strand-specific RNA libraies are constructed from apex and mature leaves of plants invoved in short-term drought or apex, young leaves, mature leaves and root tissue of Populus plants involved in long-term drought. RNA libraries are sequenced with illumina Hiseq 2500.