Transcriptome profiling of shoot and root tip of soybean

Shoot apical meristem (SAM) and root apical meristem (RAM) are regions in the plant which contain stem cells. SAM provides cells for development of all above-ground structures such as leaves, flowers, branches and inter nodes and RAM is responsible for formation of plant underground organs. Furthermore, root is major component of plant nutrient and use of water in the plant. Therefore, the growth and development of the plant depends on the function of meristematic regions in shoot and root apex. In this study, the transcriptome of the shoot and root tip of soybean were investigated to identify genes that are highly expressed in this regions and likely to have major role in these areas. Hence, RNA-seq data were analyzed using the CLC Genomics workbench. Results revealed 1956 and 1725 genes were specifically expressed in the shoot and root tip, respectively. Moreover in the shoot tip in comparison with the root tip, 3750 genes of differentially expressed genes had a fold change of two or greater and 3710 of down-regulated genes in the shoot tip had a fold change of two or greater. Functional analysis of differentially expressed genes revealed that these genes are involved in catalytic, transcription, signaling and enzyme regulator activities.