Skip to main content
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses

New Research In

Physical Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Applied Mathematics
  • Applied Physical Sciences
  • Astronomy
  • Computer Sciences
  • Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
  • Engineering
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Mathematics
  • Statistics

Social Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Economic Sciences
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Political Sciences
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Social Sciences

Biological Sciences

Featured Portals

  • Sustainability Science

Articles by Topic

  • Agricultural Sciences
  • Anthropology
  • Applied Biological Sciences
  • Biochemistry
  • Biophysics and Computational Biology
  • Cell Biology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Sciences
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
  • Immunology and Inflammation
  • Medical Sciences
  • Microbiology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology
  • Physiology
  • Plant Biology
  • Population Biology
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
  • Sustainability Science
  • Systems Biology
Research Article

The resurrection genome of Boea hygrometrica: A blueprint for survival of dehydration

Lihong Xiao, Ge Yang, Liechi Zhang, Xinhua Yang, Shuang Zhao, Zhongzhong Ji, Qing Zhou, Min Hu, Yu Wang, Ming Chen, Yu Xu, Haijing Jin, Xuan Xiao, Guipeng Hu, Fang Bao, Yong Hu, Ping Wan, Legong Li, Xin Deng, Tingyun Kuang, Chengbin Xiang, Jian-Kang Zhu, Melvin J. Oliver, and Yikun He
PNAS May 5, 2015 112 (18) 5833-5837; first published April 20, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1505811112
Lihong Xiao
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ge Yang
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Liechi Zhang
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Xinhua Yang
b Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Shuang Zhao
b Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Zhongzhong Ji
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Qing Zhou
b Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Min Hu
b Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Yu Wang
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ming Chen
b Beijing Genomics Institute-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Yu Xu
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Haijing Jin
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Xuan Xiao
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Guipeng Hu
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Fang Bao
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Yong Hu
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ping Wan
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Legong Li
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Xin Deng
cKey Laboratory of Plant Resources and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Tingyun Kuang
dKey Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Chengbin Xiang
eSchool of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230022, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jian-Kang Zhu
fShanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China;
gDepartment of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907; and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Melvin J. Oliver
hPlant Genetics Research Unit, Midwest Area, Agricultural Research Service, United State Department of Agriculture, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Yikun He
aSchool of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  1. Contributed by Jian-Kang Zhu, March 26, 2015 (sent for review February 10, 2015; reviewed by Sagadevan G. Mundree and Andrew J. Wood)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

The genome analysis presented here represents a major step forward in the field of desiccation tolerance and a much-anticipated resource that will have a far-reaching effect in many areas of plant biology and agriculture. We present the ∼1.69-Gb draft genome of Boea hygrometrica, an important plant model for understanding responses to dehydration. To our knowledge, this is the first genome sequence of a desiccation-tolerant extremophile, offering insight into the evolution of this important trait and a first look, to our knowledge, into the genome organization of desiccation tolerance. The underpinning genome architecture and response in relation to the hydration state of the plant and its role in the preservation of cellular integrity has important implications for developing drought tolerance improvement strategies for our crops.

Abstract

“Drying without dying” is an essential trait in land plant evolution. Unraveling how a unique group of angiosperms, the Resurrection Plants, survive desiccation of their leaves and roots has been hampered by the lack of a foundational genome perspective. Here we report the ∼1,691-Mb sequenced genome of Boea hygrometrica, an important resurrection plant model. The sequence revealed evidence for two historical genome-wide duplication events, a compliment of 49,374 protein-coding genes, 29.15% of which are unique (orphan) to Boea and 20% of which (9,888) significantly respond to desiccation at the transcript level. Expansion of early light-inducible protein (ELIP) and 5S rRNA genes highlights the importance of the protection of the photosynthetic apparatus during drying and the rapid resumption of protein synthesis in the resurrection capability of Boea. Transcriptome analysis reveals extensive alternative splicing of transcripts and a focus on cellular protection strategies. The lack of desiccation tolerance-specific genome organizational features suggests the resurrection phenotype evolved mainly by an alteration in the control of dehydration response genes.

  • vegetative desiccation tolerance
  • resurrection plant
  • Boea hygrometrica
  • drought tolerance enhancement
  • genome

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: jkzhu{at}purdue.edu, Mel.Oliver{at}ars.usda.gov, or yhe{at}cnu.edu.cn.
  • Author contributions: L.X., T.K., and Y. He designed research; L.X., G.Y., L.Z., and Z.J. performed research; Y.W., Y.X., H.J., X.X., G.H., F.B., Y. Hu, L.L., X.D., and C.X. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; L.X., X.Y., S.Z., Q.Z., M.H., M.C., P.W., J.-K.Z., M.J.O., and Y. He analyzed data; and L.X., J.-K.Z., M.J.O., and Y. He wrote the paper.

  • Reviewers: S.G.M., Queensland University of Technology; and A.J.W., Southern Illinois University.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Data deposition: The data reported in this paper have been deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo (accession no. GSE48671), and the BioSample database, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/biosample (accession no. SAMN02215335).

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1505811112/-/DCSupplemental.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The resurrection genome of Boea hygrometrica: A blueprint for survival of dehydration
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Draft genome of resurrection dicot B. hygrometrica
Lihong Xiao, Ge Yang, Liechi Zhang, Xinhua Yang, Shuang Zhao, Zhongzhong Ji, Qing Zhou, Min Hu, Yu Wang, Ming Chen, Yu Xu, Haijing Jin, Xuan Xiao, Guipeng Hu, Fang Bao, Yong Hu, Ping Wan, Legong Li, Xin Deng, Tingyun Kuang, Chengbin Xiang, Jian-Kang Zhu, Melvin J. Oliver, Yikun He
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 112 (18) 5833-5837; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1505811112

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Draft genome of resurrection dicot B. hygrometrica
Lihong Xiao, Ge Yang, Liechi Zhang, Xinhua Yang, Shuang Zhao, Zhongzhong Ji, Qing Zhou, Min Hu, Yu Wang, Ming Chen, Yu Xu, Haijing Jin, Xuan Xiao, Guipeng Hu, Fang Bao, Yong Hu, Ping Wan, Legong Li, Xin Deng, Tingyun Kuang, Chengbin Xiang, Jian-Kang Zhu, Melvin J. Oliver, Yikun He
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 112 (18) 5833-5837; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1505811112
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 112 (18)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Article Classifications

  • Biological Sciences
  • Plant Biology

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Materials and Methods
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Surgeons hands during surgery
Inner Workings: Advances in infectious disease treatment promise to expand the pool of donor organs
Despite myriad challenges, clinicians see room for progress.
Image credit: Shutterstock/David Tadevosian.
Setting sun over a sun-baked dirt landscape
Core Concept: Popular integrated assessment climate policy models have key caveats
Better explicating the strengths and shortcomings of these models will help refine projections and improve transparency in the years ahead.
Image credit: Witsawat.S.
Double helix
Journal Club: Noncoding DNA shown to underlie function, cause limb malformations
Using CRISPR, researchers showed that a region some used to label “junk DNA” has a major role in a rare genetic disorder.
Image credit: Nathan Devery.
Steamboat Geyser eruption.
Eruption of Steamboat Geyser
Mara Reed and Michael Manga explore why Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser resumed erupting in 2018.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Multi-color molecular model
Enzymatic breakdown of PET plastic
A study demonstrates how two enzymes—MHETase and PETase—work synergistically to depolymerize the plastic pollutant PET.
Image credit: Aaron McGeehan (artist).

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490