Transcriptome analysis of the common moss Bryum pseudotriquetrum grown under Antarctic field conditions

Abstract Mosses are distributed all over the world including Antarctica. Although Antarctic mosses show active growth in a short summer season under harsh environments such as low temperature, drought and high levels of UV radiation, survival mechanisms for such multiple environmental stresses of Antarctic mosses have not yet been clarified. In the present study, transcriptome analyses were performed using one of the common mosses Bryum pseudotriquetrum grown under Antarctic field and artificial cultivation conditions. Totally 88,205 contigs were generated by de novo assembly, among which 1,377 and 435 genes were significantly up- and down-regulated, respectively, under Antarctic field conditions compared with artificial cultivation condition. Among the up-regulated genes, a number of lipid metabolism-related and oil body formation-related genes were identified. Consistent with these results, B. pseudotriquetrum grown under Antarctic field conditions contained large amounts of fatty acids, especially α-linolenic acid, linolenic acid and arachidonic acid. In addition, proportion of unsaturated fatty acids to the total fatty acids was also higher. Since lipid accumulation and unsaturation of fatty acids are generally important factors for acquisition of various environmental stress tolerance in plants, these intracellular physiological and metabolic changes may be responsible for survival of B. pseudotriquetrum under Antarctic harsh environments.