Transcriptome sequencing of transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana producing moth pheromones [2]

Insect sex pheromones are an important resource in integrated pest management. Encouraging steps have been made towards their sustainable production in plant biofactories, but important obstacles remain to be resolved. We have used transcriptomic analysis to determine the molecular perturbations behing growth penalty associated with high pheromone production in transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana lines with constitutive expression of genes for biosynthesis of moth sex pheromones - SexyPlants v1.2. We analyzed two lines with high production of pheromones as well as wt N. benthamiana. Overall design: Transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana lines with constitutive expression of moth pheromone biosynthesis genes as well as wt plants were grown in controlled conditions and sampled at the same growth stage, determined by the number of fully developed leaves (35 days in soil). We sampled 2nd and 3rd fully developed leaf from each plant. Four biological replicates (plants) per plant line were sampled. We inclued two different lines with high production phenotype and wt plants.