Objective To reveal the effect of avoiding light treatment on the expression of genes related to the synthesis of bitter and astringent substances in Dendrocalamus latiflorus shoot.

Method Transcriptome sequencing was carried out on bamboo shoots with natural growth (CK) and soil covered conditions (EP) by using Illumina HiSeq^TM 2500 platform, and the differential expression genes were analyzed.

Result Transcriptome sequencing produced a total of 36.45 Gb raw data, and then was assembled into 53 388 Unigene by redundant processing. Comparing the obtained Unigene to Nr, Pfam, COG, Swissprot, GO and KEGG, the function annotation showed that a total of 31 462 Unigene were homologous to other species. In the comparative analysis of the Unigene expression in CK and EP experiment, 1 846 differential expression genes were screened out, among which 998 genes were up-regulated and 848 genes were down-regulated in EP experiment. The KEGG results showed that the differential expression genes were significantly enriched into 32 pathways, which included glycolysis, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis associated with the synthesis of bitter and astringent substances. Further studies showed that the expression of PFK, ENO, PPY-AT/HPP-AT, LAR enzyme genes involved in the synthesis of aromatic amino acids and tannins in D. latiflorus shoots decreased in EP treatment, and the results of qRT-PCR were generally consistent with the results of sequencing.

Conclusion Avoiding light treatment can inhibit the gene expression of key enzymes of phenylalanine, tyrosine and tannin biosynthesis, which may ultimately affect the synthesis of bitter and astringent substances in D. latiflorus shoots.