Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Gleditsia sinensis Thorns at Different Stages of Development

Abstract

G. sinensis thorn (called “zào jiǎo cì”, ZJC) has important medicinal and economic value, however, little is known about the molecular mechanisms behind the development of ZJC. In this study, we measured the content of soluble sugar and starch during the growth and development of the thorn, and performed transcriptome sequencing of the thorn segment, non-thorn segment, apex, and root tip at five distinct stages of thorn formation. The results showed that, with the growth of ZJC, the soluble sugar content of the roots, hypocotyls, thorn stems, thornless stems, leaves, and the starch content of the roots and leaves all firstly increased and then decreased after the basic structure of thorns was formed; the soluble sugar content and starch content of ZJC showed an overall downward trend (decreased by 59.26% and 84.56%, respectively). Myb-like, YABBY2, Growth-regulating factor 3, TCP2, Zinc transporter 8, and another 25 genes may be related to the maintenance and growth of thorns. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between stems with thorn and thorn-free stems found that a significant number of DEGs were annotated with terms related to the positive regulation of development, heterochronic (GO:0045962), the positive regulation of photomorphogenesis (GO:2000306), and other biological process (BP) terms. The developmental initiation regulation of ZJC may be regulated by TCP transcription factors (TFs). Eight genes were selected randomly to validate the RNA-seq results using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and they indicated that the transcriptome data were reliable. Our work provided a comprehensive review of the thorn development of G. sinensis.

Chromosome-levelde novogenome unveils the evolution ofGleditsia sinensisand thorns development

“…Thus, we predicted that GsinMYB (Gsin11G015360) might regulate the color change from green to yellow brown and then to purple brown by mediating the anthocyanin accumulation. Similarly, earlier investigation proposed that Myb-like, YABBY2, Growth-regulating factor 3, TCP2, Zinc transporter 8 may participate the maintenance and growth of thorns in G. sinensis, helping to elucidate MYB involved in thorns development (Xiao et al, 2023). In castor, the map-based cloning in 2 independent F 2 populations presented the regulatory roles of RcMYB106 about capsule spine development.…”

“…Light is crucial for the growth, morphology, and developmental changes in plants (de Wit et al, 2016). The photomorphogenesis was reported to participate in thorn development (Xiao et al, 2023). While the detailed role of light in regulating the development of thorns is largely unknown.…”

“…TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 / CYCLOIDEA / PCF (TCP), a plant-specifc transcription factor family, play central roles in many aspects of plant development, including plant height (Davière et al, 2014), lateral branching (Takeda et al, 2003), trichome formation (Lan et al, 2021), thorn conversion (Zhang et al, 2021) and circadian clock (Giraud et al, 2010). The gene expression profile analysis of G. sinensis seedlings showed TCP TFs might be involved in developmental initiation regulation of thorns (Xiao et al, 2023). Previous investigation elucidated two Citrus genes, THORN IDENTITY1 (TI1) and THORN IDENTITY2 (TI2), encoding TCP transcription factors, were critical regulators of the termination of meristem proliferation and concomitant thorn production (Zhang et al, 2021).…”

The Effects of Homologous and Heterologous Grafting on the Growth of Gleditsia sinensis Scions

“…: Leguminosae) is mainly distributed in Asia and America [1]. In China, G. sinensis is the most-used species of Gleditsia in China; it is widely distributed and has various traditional medicinal and culinary applications [2][3][4]. The endosperm of the seeds is edible, while the thorns of G. sinensis can be used as medicine [5], and the pods can be used as a detergent.…”

Full-length transcriptome characterization and comparative analysis of Gleditsia sinensis

“…Wu et al [ 10 ] analyzed green, purple, and yellow G. sinensis leaves, and found that differences in the expression of pigment-related genes were related to leaf color. The RNA-seq sequencing and analysis of different developmental tissues and stages of G. sinensis thorns were performed [ 11 ]. The stem tip of different species within the Gleditsia genus were sequencing using the RNA-seq [ 4 ].…”