Cell wall, lignin and fatty acid-related transcriptome in soybean: achieving gene expression patterns for bioenergy legume

Abstract

Increasing efforts to preserve environmental resources have included the development of more efficient technologies to produce energy from renewable sources such as plant biomass, notably through biofuels and cellulosic residues. The relevance of the soybean industry is due mostly to oil and protein production which, although interdependent, results from coordinated gene expression in primary metabolism. Concerning biomass and biodiesel, a comprehensive analysis of gene regulation associated with cell wall components (as polysaccharides and lignin) and fatty acid metabolism may be very useful for finding new strategies in soybean breeding for the expanding bioenergy industry. Searching the Genosoja transcriptional database for enzymes and proteins directly involved in cell wall, lignin and fatty acid metabolism provides gene expression datasets with frequency distribution and specific regulation that is shared among several cultivars and organs, and also in response to different biotic/abiotic stress treatments. These results may be useful as a starting point to depict the Genosoja database regarding gene expression directly associated with potential applications of soybean biomass and/or residues for bioenergy-producing technologies.

Systems Identification and Characterization of Cell Wall Reassembly and Degradation Related Genes in Glycine max (L.) Merill, a Bioenergy Legume

“…Which in turn highlighted many tissue/anatomical part specific genes involved in CWRD, these could be potential candidates to engineer these tissues/anatomical parts for achieving higher biomass yields. A recent study on expression patterns of pectin, cellulose, cell, wall, lignin and fatty acid related genes was done in different soybean tissues 5 . In our studies, varied expression potential of all members of 12 studies gene families was observed in five soybean plant developmental stages.…”

“…The improvement of genomics and proteomics technologies with the availability of massive publically available data. Many studies have compared cell wall modification under abiotic stress with controls 5 , 64 , 68 . Higher expression potential of EXPs and XTHs under heat stress in our studies is strongly in line with the previously established fact that XTHs act as tethering polymers between cellulose fibrils 64 , 68 – 70 .…”

“…The utility of soybean molasses along with post-processing residues in ethanol production has already been considered in many countries, especially in Brazil 4 , 5 and is it has been reported as a promising and viable alternative in terms of usable energy and reduced greenhouse gases as compared to many other crops 6 , 7 . Such a superiority makes soybean a potential alternative resource to provide agro-industrial by-products such as molasses and residual field biomass after oil production 5 . One ton of a de-oiled soybean yields 190.8 Kg molasses, which upon fermentation can produce 18.4 Kg ethanol 8 .…”

Harnessing the Potential of Forage Legumes, Alfalfa, Soybean, and Cowpea for Sustainable Agriculture and Global Food Security

“…Similarly, the development of the GENOSOJA database for in silico predictions on soybean transcriptomes related to enzymes and proteins involved in cell wall, lignin, and fatty acid metabolism is expected to provide valuable information on the regulation of coding gene expression ( Nascimento et al, 2012 ). Moreover, Pestana-Calsa et al (2012) identified in silico 49 reads associated with cell wall components (polysaccharides and lignin) in soybean. Such candidates can also be targets for genetic manipulation to improve forage digestibility.…”

A Proteomics Approach to Study Soybean and Its Symbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum –A Review

“…The other isoflavones have anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, positive cardiovascular and cerebrovascular effects [9]. More recently soybean oil has also been used as an oil source for biodiesel [10][11][12][13][14]. Table 1 provides the latest statistics on soybean cultivation and production as available at FAOSTAT [15] Soybean is a well-known nitrogen fixer and has been a model plant for the study of BNF.…”