Global identification and functional prediction of cold-related lncRNAs in eggplant

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in plant development and stress responses. So far, identification of lncRNA in eggplant response to stresses has been limited and the role in mediating response to cold stress is yet to be characterized in eggplant. In this study, there is reported the first dataset of lncRNAs responsive to cold stress in the cold tolerant and sensitive eggplants using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). 227 and 225 differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs were obtained in two genotypes with differential cold-tolerance. Functional characterization through gene ontology (GO) analysis indicated that target genes were particularly related to acyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity and pseudouridine synthase activity, which could result in the tolerant phenotypes. Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) showed that target genes in both sensitive and tolerant eggplants were mainly involved in cold responsive pathways such as oxidative phosphorylation, peroxisome, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum, ubiquitin mediated proteolysis and so on. However, the enriched pathways obtained by enrichment analysis in cold-tolerant eggplant were different from those in cold-sensitive eggplant, which further indicated the reason for different tolerances. Our findings highlight the potential contributions of lncRNAs in regulating eggplant response to cold stress and difference in cold tolerance.