Transcriptome analysis of Camelina sativa: candidate genes for an emerging stress tolerant biodiesel crop

Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz belongs to Brassicaeae family of crops and is closely related to the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Camelina has great promise as a biofuels crop because it is productive on nutrient limited soils and under environmental stresses such as drought, cold, and high soil salinity. As a stress-tolerant oil seed crop, Camelina has several merits for biofuels. Firstly, its short generation time allows for multiple crops per year. Secondly, it has a high seed weight to plant size ratio. Lastly, high levels of eicosenoic acid and C18 omega-3 fatty acids in Camelina seeds are suitable for the development of bio-diesel and aviation fuels. We are studying the transcriptome of Camelina sativa to obtain a better understanding of its growth, stress-resistance and oil production. Using Illumina and Roche-454 Next Generation Sequencing platforms, we have produced deep coverage (over 150 Gb) of the transcriptome in Camelina. We established tissue-specific EST databases for the transcriptomes of leaves, stems, roots, flowers and seeds as well as the response of Camelina plants to the abiotic stresses of drought, salt, cold and Cadmium. Candidate genes for functional studies are being identified from differential gene expression levels and gene network analysis. This project is a collaboration of the Department of Bioenergy Science & Technology at Chonnam National University and the Schatz Center for Tree Molecular Genetics at Penn State. The project is supported by the World Class University Project R31-2009-000-20025-0 funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea.