RNA-seq Analysis of Nepenthes ampullaria

Pitcher plant, Nepenthes spp., is one of the carnivorous plants, which produces unique pitcher structure from the tip of leaf tendril for trapping and digestion of insect prey to acquire nutrients at habitats that are deprived of nitrogen. Nepenthes ampullaria is special when compared with other pitcher plants as it has evolved a detritivore habit for the acquisition of nutrients from leaf litter instead of solely dependent on insects (Moran et al., 2003; Pavlovič et al., 2011). The morphology of pitcher changes upon opening in preparation for nutrient absorption (Owen et al., 1999). Furthermore, the efficiency of pitcher trapping increases from day 3 to day 6 after opening (Bauer et al., 2009). Hence, it is of interest to investigate the maturation of pitcher in the first 3 days of opening. To study the pitcher fluid composition and its gene expression changes over time, we performed the first transcriptome analysis of N. ampullaria for comparison with N. ventrata (Wan Zakaria et al., 2016). Raw reads of the transcriptome assembly project have been deposited to SRA database with the accession numbers SRX1400303 (Day 0 control), SRX1400308 (Day 3 control), and SRX1400311 (day 3 depleted).