Screening of genes related to vegetative growth stage of Anthurium andraeanum based on transcriptome sequencing

【Objective】 This study aimed to explore the genes regulating duration of vegetative growth stage of Anthuri-um andraeanum through transcriptome sequencing， so as to provide theoretical references for elucidating gene regulation mechanism during the transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth and molecular breeding of vegetative growth stage of Anthurium andraeanum. 【Method】 Taking Anthurium andraeanum cultivar Guanghua Xiaotianjiao ente-ring the reproductive growth and Anthurium andraeanum cultivar 2016-035-5 in the vegetative growth stage as research objects， transcriptome sequencing analysis was performed on roots， stems， leaves， and buds of the two germplasms with vegetative growth stage of different durations to screen for differentially expressed genes （DEGs）. The GO functional annotation and KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analysis of DEGs were performed to identify key genes and signaling pathways involved in regulating the duration of vegetative growth stage of Anthurium andraeanum. The reliability of transcriptome data was verified by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. 【Result】 A total of 203.18 Gb of clean data was obtained through transcriptome sequencing， and 6151 DEGs were screened from the two Anthurium andraeanum germplams. A total of 550 DEGs were identified in the four comparison groups of roots， stems， leaves， and buds. GO functional analysis showed that DEGs were mainly annotated to： biological process terms such as metabolic process， cellular process， single-organism process， response to stimulus， biological regulation， regulation of biological process process， and localization； cellular components terms including cell part and cell； molecular function terms such as binding and catalytic activity. KEGG signaling pathway enrichment analysis showed that the KEGG pathways of DEGs mainly annotated to metabolic pathway， biosynthesis of secondary metabolites， plant-pathogen interaction， phenylpropanoid biosynthesis， carbon metabolism， plant hormone signal transduction， etc. A total of 42 genes regulating duration of vegetative growth stage of Anthurium andraeanum were identified： 24 in the photoperiod pathway， 3 in the gibberellin pathway， 6 in the thermosensitive pathway， 3 in the age pathway， 2 in the autonomous pathway， and 4 in the flowering integration factor pathway. The correlation coefficient （R²） between the transcriptome sequencing and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR results was 0.7293， indicating that the transcriptome sequencing data were reliable. 【Conclusion】 The duration of vegetative growth stage of Anthurium andraeanum is regulated by multiple pathways， including pathways of photoperiod， gibberellin， thermosensitivity， age， autonomy， and flowering integration factor. The PRR5， PHL， COL5， BBX24， VIL2， PIF4， SPL10， FT， and FD genes are the key genes that change the duration of vegetative growth and flowering time.