FOLIA BIOLOGICA, vol.69, no.3, pp.99-106, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
Abstract. Hazelnut (Corylus), which has high commercial and nutritional benefits, is an important tree
for producing nuts and nut oil consumed as ingredient especially in chocolate. While Corylus avellana L.
(European hazelnut, Betulaceae) and Corylus colurna L. (Turkish hazelnut, Betulaceae) are the two
common hazelnut species in Europe, C. avellana L.
(Tombul hazelnut) is grown as the most widespread
hazelnut species in Turkey, and C. colurna L., which
is the most important genetic resource for hazelnut
breeding, exists naturally in Anatolia. We generated
the transcriptome data of these two Corylus species
and used these data for gene discovery and gene expression profiling. Total RNA from young leaves,
flowers (male and female), buds, and husk shoots of
C. avellana and C. colurna were used for two different libraries and were sequenced using Illumina
HiSeq4000 with 100 bp paired-end reads. The transcriptome data 10.48 and 10.30 Gb of C. avellana and
C. colurna, respectively, were assembled into 70,265
and 88,343 unigenes, respectively. These unigenes
were functionally annotated using the TRAPID platform. We identified 25,312 and 27,051 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) for C. avellana and C. colurna, respectively. TL1, GMPM1, N, 2MMP, At1g29670,
CHIB1 unigenes were selected for validation with
qPCR. The first de novo transcriptome data of C. colurna were used to compare data of C. avellana of
commercial importance. These data constitute a valuable extension of the publicly available transcriptomic resource aimed at breeding, medicinal, and industrial research studies.