Transcriptome Analysis and Identification of Genes Associated with Starch Metabolism in Castanea henryi Seed (Fagaceae)

Abstract

Starch is the most important form of carbohydrate storage and is the major energy reserve in some seeds, especially Castanea henryi. Seed germination is the beginning of the plant’s life cycle, and starch metabolism is important for seed germination. As a complex metabolic pathway, the regulation of starch metabolism in C. henryi is still poorly understood. To explore the mechanism of starch metabolism during the germination of C. henryi, we conducted a comparative gene expression analysis at the transcriptional level using RNA-seq across four different germination stages, and analyzed the changes in the starch and soluble sugar contents. The results showed that the starch content increased in 0–10 days and decreased in 10–35 days, while the soluble sugar content continuously decreased in 0–30 days and increased in 30–35 days. We identified 49 candidate genes that may be associated with starch and sucrose metabolism. Three ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) genes, two nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterases (NPPS) genes and three starch synthases (SS) genes may be related to starch accumulation. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the expression levels of these genes. Our study combined transcriptome data with physiological and biochemical data, revealing potential candidate genes that affect starch metabolism during seed germination, and provides important data about starch metabolism and seed germination in seed plants.

Allelopathic effect of Artemisia argyi on the germination and growth of various weeds

“…O.sativa was selected as the test plant, and the seeds were placed in filter paper roll in Hoagland nutrient solution containing 0.0 g/ml (LCK), 0.03 g/ml (LT) of A. argyi powder water-cooled extract, respectively, and sampled for use 7 days later with three independent biological repeats. Total RNA was extracted from samples by using CTAB-PBIOZOL methods according to the manual instructions 37 . RNA libraries were generated and sequenced on BGISEQ500 platform in Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) in Shenzhen.…”

Seed Germination Mechanism of Carex rigescens Under Variable Temperature Determinded Using Integrated Single-Molecule Long-Read and Illumina Sequence Analysis

“…The expression of three SUS genes in the S2-S5 period was much higher than that of other genes, indicating that SUS may play an important role in starch metabolism. According to previous reports, SUS had a similar expression during the germination of C. henryi (Liu et al, 2020), and the expression of SUS4 was evidently specific to germinated seeds (Bieniawska et al, 2010). The upregulated expression of malZ (Tibbot et al, 1998), INV (Liu et al, 2020), and HK (Aguilera-Alvarado et al, 2019) activated sucrose metabolism.…”

“…According to previous reports, low temperature inhibited seed germination of Paeonia ostii “Feng Dan” by inducing ABA synthesis, inhibiting starch degradation, reducing soluble sugar consumption, and disrupting protein synthesis ( Ren et al, 2018 ). GBSS and SUSY genes are key regulators of sucrose and starch metabolic pathways during Castanea henryi seed germination ( Liu et al, 2020 ). The sucrose transporter sut4 interacts with cyb5 to actively mediate sucrose and glucose signals to inhibit Arabidopsis seed germination ( Li et al, 2012 ).…”

Regulation Mechanism of Exogenous Brassinolide on Bulbil Formation and Development in Pinellia ternata

“…The content of starch and soluble sugar was measured using the method of anthrone-sulfuric acid method ( Liu et al, 2020 ). The 0.2 g fresh sample was extracted with 3 mL of 80% ethanol in a water bath (75°C) for 30 min and was centrifuged at 4,507 g for 5 min.…”