Understanding the complex inner workings of organisms like sorghum and sugarcane is essential for advancements in agriculture, biofuel production, and various other fields. Genomic resources like pan-transcriptomes play a pivotal role in unlocking this knowledge by providing a comprehensive view of gene expression across diverse genotypes.

This study presents a significant contribution to sorghum genomics by constructing a pan-transcriptome, a massive dataset encompassing the collective transcripts from 18 different sorghum genotypes. By analyzing over 1.23x10^10 publicly available RNA-seq reads, we have assembled a rich resource that captures the intricate variations in gene expression across this diverse sorghum population.

The pan-transcriptome not only offers a comprehensive catalog of transcripts (ranging from 1.51x10^5 to 4.32x10^5 transcripts per genotype) but also provides valuable insights into gene regulation and functional annotation. We have generated genotype-specific transcriptome assemblies, incorporating both de novo and genome-guided approaches, along with Gene Ontology annotations to elucidate the potential functions of these transcripts.

Furthermore, our analysis delves deeper into the composition of the pan-transcriptome, identifying distinct categories of transcripts based on their presence across genotypes. This categorization, along with functional enrichment analyses, sheds light on the unique roles played by different elements of the pan-transcriptome.

Overall, this pan-transcriptome resource represents a valuable step forward in sorghum genomics. It opens up new avenues for research in gene discovery, functional annotation, and breeding applications, paving the way for a more comprehensive understanding of this vital crop species.

Poster PDF

Data availability

Github repository: Public repository with code for Sorghum Pan-transcriptome.