Identification of mRNAs which move over long-distances through the RNA-Seq analysis on Arabidopsis/Nicotiana benthamiana heterografts.. Nicotiana benthamiana

Phloem is a conduct tissue to allocate nutrient from mature source leaves to sink tissues such as young developing tissues. Phloem also delivers proteins and RNA species such as small RNAs and mRNAs. Intensive studies on plant systemic signaling unveiled the essential roles on part of proteins and RNA species. However, many of those functions are still largely unknown. Especially the roles of transported mRNAs were poorly understood. Major difficulty is absence of the assured, bona fide list of mobile > transcripts. In this study, we used a hetero-graft system, where N. benthamiana was used as a recipient scion and Arabidopsis was used as a donor stock, to identify the transcripts which move long-distances over > graft junction. We identified 138 Arabidopsis transcripts as mobile transcripts, and we called them mRNA mobilome. RT-PCR, qRT-PCR and droplet digital PCR analyses confirm the data significance.