Investigation of Persian black cumin (Bunium persicum Boiss.) transcriptome in the granulation stage and identification of genomic microsatellites in this plant

Persian black cumin is one of the most important endemic plants to Iran. Its seed is used in the daily diet of Iranians and also has medicinal properties and aromatic compounds. Unfortunately, there is little information about its genome and molecular markers. In this study, the transcriptome of Iranian black cumin was sequenced in the granulation stage and after extracting the microsatellites (SSR markers) related to this growth stage, their interpretation was done. After RNA extraction, the inflorescences and stems were sequenced. Sequencing depth and length were 6 GB and 150 bp pair-end, respectively. Sequencing data were analyzed using different softwares. De-novo assembly of Persian black cumin was performed by Trinity software. Microsatellite markers were extracted using MISA software. Finally, the functional interpretation of the microsatellite-containing sequences was performed by the WEGO database. The GC content of different samples was 47 to 50%. 8389 microsatellite markers were obtained from 45146 unigenes. At least 11% of unigenes contained microsatellites. A/T and AG/CT nucleotides had the highest percentage of microsatellite markers. Among the three nucleotide repeats, ATC/ATG and AAG/CTT had the highest frequency of microsatellites. The results of functional interpretation showed that unigenes containing microsatellite markers cover a wide range of biological activities of Persian black cumin and the genes involved in seed development and growth have a high level of expression. This study is the first report of microsatellite markers of Persian black cumin. The results of the present study can be useful in finding different markers for breeding programs and developing cultivars with different goals.