Differential gene expression provides leads to environmentally regulated soybean seed protein content

Frontiers in Plant Science

Plant Science

Ramona M. Mohr¹  Gerardo Zapata²  François Lefebvre²  Ketema A. Daba³  Brent Barlow³  Thomas D. Warkentin³  Myron Smith⁴  Ashkan Golshani⁴  Anfu Hou⁵  Elroy R. Cober⁶  Martin Charette⁶  Doris Luckert⁶  Mehri Hadinezhad⁶  Bahram Samanfar⁷  Julia C. Hooker⁷ 

[1] Brandon Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Brandon, MB, Canada;Canadian Centre for Computational Genomics, Montréal, QC, Canada;Crop Development Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada;Department of Biology, Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Morden Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Morden, MB, Canada;Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Department of Biology, Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada;

关键词: RNA-seq;    differential expression;    soybean;    asparagine;    seed protein;    amino acid metabolism;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpls.2023.1260393

 received in 2023-07-17, accepted in 2023-08-23,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Soybean is an important global source of plant-based protein. A persistent trend has been observed over the past two decades that soybeans grown in western Canada have lower seed protein content than soybeans grown in eastern Canada. In this study, 10 soybean genotypes ranging in average seed protein content were grown in an eastern location (control) and three western locations (experimental) in Canada. Seed protein and oil contents were measured for all lines in each location. RNA-sequencing and differential gene expression analysis were used to identify differentially expressed genes that may account for relatively low protein content in western-grown soybeans. Differentially expressed genes were enriched for ontologies and pathways that included amino acid biosynthesis, circadian rhythm, starch metabolism, and lipid biosynthesis. Gene ontology, pathway mapping, and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping collectively provide a close inspection of mechanisms influencing nitrogen assimilation and amino acid biosynthesis between soybeans grown in the East and West. It was found that western-grown soybeans had persistent upregulation of asparaginase (an asparagine hydrolase) and persistent downregulation of asparagine synthetase across 30 individual differential expression datasets. This specific difference in asparagine metabolism between growing environments is almost certainly related to the observed differences in seed protein content because of the positive correlation between seed protein content at maturity and free asparagine in the developing seed. These results provided pointed information on seed protein-related genes influenced by environment. This information is valuable for breeding programs and genetic engineering of geographically optimized soybeans.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Hooker, Smith, Zapata, Charette, Luckert, Mohr, Daba, Warkentin, Hadinezhad, Barlow, Hou, Lefebvre, Golshani, Cober and Samanfar