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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Transcriptome and metabolite profiling to identify genes associated with rhizome lignification and the function of ZoCSE in ginger (Zingiber officinale)

Xian Zhang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2785-3022 A B C , Dongsheng Ran A , Peiyin Wu A C , Zhengyan Cao A C , Feng Xu C , Ning Xia A , Hongmei Gao A , Ying Jiang A , Cheng Yang A , Na He A , Ning Tang A B * and Zexiong Chen A B *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A College of Landscape Architecture and Life Science, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing 402160, China.

B Chongqing Key Laboratory of Economic Plant Biotechnology, Chongqing 400000, China.

C College of Horticulture and Gardening, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China.


Handling Editor: Helen Irving

Functional Plant Biology 49(8) 689-703 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP21267
Submitted: 17 December 2020  Accepted: 15 March 2022   Published: 5 April 2022

© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) is an important spice crop in China, and fresh ginger rhizomes are consumed as vegetable in Sichuan and Chongqing. However, tissue lignification accelerates with rhizome maturation, resulting in the loss of edible quality. To understand the molecular mechanisms of texture modification during rhizome development, we investigated lignin accumulation patterns and identified the key genes associated with lignin biosynthesis using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) and RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq). Results showed that the contents of total lignin and its precursors exhibited notable declines with tissue maturation. However, the lignin composition was remarkably modified and syringyl lignin was deposited in mature rhizomes, leading to ginger lignification. Transcriptome analysis displayed 32 lignin biosynthetic genes were dramatically downregulated with rhizome development, including caffeoylshikimate esterase (CSE), 4-coumarate-CoA ligase, laccase, cinnamoyl-CoA reductase, cinnamyl-alcohol dehydrogenase, peroxidase and caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase, indicating that lignin reduction might be attributed to deficiency in intermediates or the downregulation of key biosynthetic enzymes. Furthermore, overexpressing ZoCSE in Nicotiana benthamiana L. enhanced the total lignin content, suggesting its fundamental role in lignin biosynthesis. RNA-Seq also identified candidate lignin production regulators, including hormone-related genes and NAC/MYB transcription factors (ZoNAC1, ZoNAC4, ZoMYB14 and ZoMYB17). This result provides a molecular basis for lignin accumulation in ginger.

Keywords: caffeoyl shikimate esterase, ginger, hormone-related genes, lignin biosynthesis, rhizome growth, transcription factors, transcriptome, transgenic plants.


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