Transcriptome Sequencing of <i>Agave amaniensis</i> Reveals Shoot-Related Expression Patterns of <i>Expansin A</i> Genes in <i>Agave</i>

oleh: Xuxia Wang, Xing Huang, Lisha Chen, Zhouli Xie, Shibei Tan, Xu Qin, Tao Chen, Yanlei Huang, Jingen Xi, Helong Chen, Kexian Yi

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-05-01

Deskripsi

<i>Agave</i> species are widely planted for fiber production. However, the molecular basis of agave fiber development has not been well understood. In this study, we performed a transcriptomic analysis in <i>A. amaniensi</i>, a well-known variety with high-quality fiber production. Approximately 43.87 million clean reads were obtained using Illumina sequencing. The de novo assembly produced 66,746 unigrams, 54% of which were annotated in a public database. In the Nr database, 21,490 unigenes of <i>A. amaniensis</i> were shown to be most closely related to <i>Asparagus officinalis</i>. Nine <i>expansin A</i> orthologs with full coding regions were obtained, which were named <i>EXP1a</i>, <i>EXP1b</i>, <i>EXP2</i>, <i>EXP3</i>, <i>EXP4a</i>, <i>EXP4b</i>, <i>EXP11</i>, <i>EXP12,</i> and <i>EXP13</i>. The maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree revealed the species-specific expansion of <i>expansin</i> genes in <i>Arabidopsis</i>, rice and agave. The expression analysis suggested the negative correlation between the expression of <i>expansin</i> genes and the leaf growth rate, except <i>AhEXP11</i>. Moreover, <i>expansin</i> genes were differentially affected by abiotic and biotic stresses. Notably, <i>AhEXP2</i> expression level was highly upgraded after the infection of <i>Phytophthora nicotiana</i>. Nutrient deficiency also influent <i>expansin</i> genes expression. Together, our research will benefit future studies related to fiber development, disease resistance and nutrient usage in agave.