Co-expression networks for strawberry flower and fruit development

The diploid strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a useful model system for understanding non-climacteric ripening and seed-to-fruit cross-tissues communication. Previously, spatial and temporal transcriptome data from the strawberry fruit and flowers was generated. Shahan and colleagues combine the transcriptome data with new RNA-seq libraries to create co-expression networks. They used post-hoc consensus clustering approach and bootstrapping to generate reproducible and robust clusters from this data set. Based on the networks, they found increased iron transport from the receptacle to the seed after fertilization, and characterized a floral mutant and the underlying gene. These networks are available on the web interface www.fv.rosaceaefruits.org. The networks can be used to further mine the transcriptome data, and can be used to build a framework for understanding other species in the Rosaceae.  (Summary by Julia Miller) Plant Physiol. 10.1104/pp.18.00086