Transcriptome changes in the developing sugarcane culm associated with high yield and early-season high sugar content. Collection of 360 samples of sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) across 24 sugarcane cultivars at five different development stages.. SG_RH_TRANSCRIPTOME_360S_SUGARCANE (Transcriptome changes in the developing sugarcane culm associated with high yield and early-season high sugar content)

Sugarcane, with its exceptional carbon dioxide assimilation, biomass and sugar yield, has a high potential for the production of bio-energy, bio-plastics and high-value products in the food and pharmaceutical industries. A crucial challenge for long-term economic viability and environmental sustainability is also to optimise the production of biomass composition and carbon sequestration. Sugarcane varieties such as KQ228 and Q253 are highly utilised in the industry. These varieties are characterised by a high early-season sugar content associated with high yield. In order to investigate these correlations, 1,440 internodes were collected and combined to generate a set of 360 samples across 24 sugarcane cultivars at five different development stages. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used and revealed two distinct modules of co-expressed genes. The first one positively correlated to high fibre content and clearly negatively correlated to early, mid sugar content. The second group of co-expressed genes showed the same opposite trend with high correlation to sugar content with a negative correlation to fibre content. Gene identification and metabolism pathways analysis described the value of these two modules. Correlation analysis identified large number of interconnected metabolic pathways linked to sugar content and fibre content. Interestingly, and for the first time unsupervised hierarchical clustering of gene expression revealed a stronger level of segregation associated with the genotypes than the stage of development.