Sucrose-phosphate phosphatase from sugarcane reveals an ancestral tandem duplication

Abstract

Background Sugarcane is capable to store large amounts of sucrose in the culm at maturity hence it became a major source of sucrose for the food and the renewable energy industries. Sucrose, the main disaccharide produced by photosynthesis, is mainly stored in the vacuole of the cells of non-photosynthetic tissues. Two pathways are known to release free sucrose in plant cells, one is de novo synthesis dependent on sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) and sucrose phosphate phosphatase (S6PP) while the other is regulatory and dependent on sucrose synthase (SuSy) activity. The molecular understanding of genes that give rise to the expression of the enzyme sucrose phosphate phosphatase, responsible for the release of sucrose in the last synthetic step lag behind the regulatory SuSy gene. Results Sugarcane genome sequencing effort disclosed the existence of a tandem duplication and the present work further support that both S6PP.1 and S6PP_2D isoforms are actively transcribed in young sugarcane plants but significantly less at maturity. Two commercial hybrids (SP80–3280 and R570) and both Saccharum spontaneum (IN84–58) and S.officinarum (BADILLA) exhibit transcriptional activity at three-month-old plants of the tandem S6PP_2D in leaves, culm, meristem and root system with a cultivar-specific distribution. Moreover, this tandem duplication is shared with other grasses and is ancestral in the group. Conclusion Detection of a new isoform of S6PP resulting from the translation of 14 exon-containing transcript (S6PP_2D) will contribute to the knowledge of sucrose metabolism in plants. In addition, expression varies along plant development and between sugarcane cultivars and parental species.

Temporal Gene Expression in Apical Culms Shows Early Changes in Cell Wall Biosynthesis Genes in Sugarcane

“…Our results revealed downregulation in the expression of SPP in apical culms at almost all time points. This result is in agreement with Partida et al (2021) , who reported downregulation of SPP 2D over the period of three to 12 months in source tissues of sugarcane. In any case, we did observe differences in temporal expression, which likely can be associated with the maturation of the genotypes in T4.…”

“…We also considered the relevance of genotypes to previous genomic studies. Hybrids SP80-3280 and R570 have been widely used in genomic studies and IN84-58 is a commonly used representative of S. spontaneum ( Partida et al, 2021 ). Genotype F36-819 is an important ancestor in Brazilian breeding programs, found in the pedigree of RB867515 ( Barreto et al, 2019 ), currently one of the most grown cultivars.…”

“…This symplastic pathway can follow two routes: translocation of sucrose into the cell mediated by sucrose transporters located in the plasma membrane ( Rae et al, 2005 ); or via sucrose hydrolyzation into fructose-6-P and UDP-glucose by acid invertases. Sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) subsequently converts these two products into sucrose-P, which is next converted into sucrose by the activity of sucrose phosphate phosphatase (SPP) ( Partida et al, 2021 ). A peak in sucrose levels is achieved at the end of the vegetative cycle, when this carbohydrate is used during flowering and seed production ( Slewinski, 2012 ).…”

Pinpointing Genomic Regions and Candidate Genes Associated with Seed Oil and Protein Content in Soybean through an Integrative Transcriptomic and QTL Meta-Analysis

“…The ABC, lipid, amino acid and sugar transporters were identified in the meta-QTL regions. The ABC transporter is known to transport fatty acid/lipids [39,40]. The sugar is mainly synthesized in leaves by the process of photosynthesis [41] and then transported to different storage tissues in the form of sucrose [41].…”

The Genetic Puzzle of Multicopy Genes: Challenges and Troubleshooting

“…Thus, the model plant P. patens was adopted as a case for investigation. In order to demonstrate the workflow potential proposed here for multicopy gene studies, we investigate the expression of the six thiamine thiazole synthase (THI1) (Dias et al, 2023a(Dias et al, , 2023b and five sucrose 6-phosphate phosphohydrolase (S6PP) (Partida et al, 2021) paralogs genes as a proof of concept. It highlights the significance and implications of identifying the appropriate orthologous genes among the multicopy gene family.…”