Genome-wide identification and characterization of COMT gene family during the development of blueberry fruit

Abstract

Background Caffeic acid O-methyltransferases (COMTs) play an important role in the diversification of natural products, especially in the phenylalanine metabolic pathway of plant. The content of COMT genes in blueberry and relationship between their expression patterns and the lignin content during fruit development have not clearly investigated by now. Results Ninety-two VcCOMTs were identified in Vaccinium corymbosum. According to phylogenetic analyses, the 92 VcCOMTs were divided into 2 groups. The gene structure and conserved motifs within groups were similar which supported the reliability of the phylogenetic structure groupings. Dispersed duplication (DSD) and whole-genome duplication (WGD) were determined to be the major forces in VcCOMTs evolution. The results showed that the results of qRT-PCR and lignin content for 22 VcCOMTs, VcCOMT40 and VcCOMT92 were related to lignin content at different stages of fruit development of blueberry. Conclusion We identified COMT gene family in blueberry, and performed comparative analyses of the phylogenetic relationships in the 15 species of land plant, and gene duplication patterns of COMT genes in 5 of the 15 species. We found 2 VcCOMTs were highly expressed and their relative contents were similar to the variation trend of lignin content during the development of blueberry fruit. These results provide a clue for further study on the roles of VcCOMTs in the development of blueberry fruit and could promisingly be foundations for breeding blueberry clutivals with higher fruit firmness and longer shelf life.

Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of Caffeic Acid O-Methyltransferase Gene Family in Soybean

“…The Methyltransf-2 domain was found in all 55 GmCOMTs gene sequences, with the majority of the genes having just one Methyltransf-2 domain; however, two genes (GmCOMT9 and GmCOMT19) had two Methyltransf-2 domains. In previous reports, the PtrCOMTs gene sequence of Populus trichocarpa contains only one Methyltransf-2 domain [48]; some blueberry VcCOMTs genes contain two or three Methyltransf-2 domains [20]. The 55 GmCOMT protein sequences all contain Methyltransf-2 domain, so they are relatively conservative; meanwhile, in the analysis of motifs, most of the motifs are relatively conservative in the two groups.…”

“…Analysis of gene structure and conserved domains showed that all COMTs have a cterminal catalytic domain named Methyltrans-2, including a SAM/SAH binding pocket and a substrate binding site. Some of them show a common structure, the N-terminal domain, called dimerization [20]. The dimerization domain of LBD has been proposed, forming a helical structure, presenting a hydrophobic surface, which is formed by nine repeating heptapeptide motifs, containing hydrophobic residues at positions one and eight, and hydrophobic or charged amino acids with hydrophobic side chains at position five.…”

“…It was later discovered that the COMT family is composed of multiple members. For example, the COMT gene family of Eucalyptus grandis has 7 Egr-COMTs genes [25]; the COMT gene family contains 23 members in Catalpa bungei [26]; there are 92 members in blueberries [20]; there are 25 COMTs genes in Populus trichocarpa [27]; there are 25 COMTs genes in Brassic rapa L. [28], and there are 25 COMTs genes in Betula pendula [29]. In this way, the function of the COMT gene family was gradually being elucidated.…”

Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of the WRKY Gene Family and Cold Stress Response in Acer truncatum

“…Then, the phylogenetic tree was constructed from the alignment results using neighbor-joining (NJ) method. The phylogenetic tree was annotated and beautified by using iTOL online software ( , accessed on 24 July 2021) [ 39 , 40 ]. Additionally, we downloaded the genomic information of A. thaliana (TAIR10.1; , accessed on 8 July 2021) and a related species called Acer yangbiense (AYv1.1; , accessed on 29 July 2021) from the NCBI website and analyzed the collinearity with the information for the three species using TBtools [ 41 ].…”

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“…Genes related to sugar and organic acids are up-regulated during fruit development [17]. Genome-wide analysis showed that high expression levels of Vaccinium corymbosum caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (VcCOMT) family genes during the development of blueberry fruit may contribute to greater fruit firmness [18]. The process of transition from flower to fruit involves the anthocyanin pathway, transcription factor-related genes, sugar-related genes, hormone-related genes, and photosynthesis.…”