Identification of HQT gene family and their potential function in CGA synthesis and abiotic stresses tolerance in vegetable sweet potato

Milca Banda Medison; Rui Pan; Ying Peng; Rudoviko Galileya Medison; Abdullah Shalmani; XinSun Yang; Wenying Zhang

doi:10.1007/s12298-023-01299-4

Identification of HQT gene family and their potential function in CGA synthesis and abiotic stresses tolerance in vegetable sweet potato

Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2023 Mar;29(3):361-376. doi: 10.1007/s12298-023-01299-4. Epub 2023 Mar 25.

Authors

Milca Banda Medison¹, Rui Pan¹, Ying Peng¹, Rudoviko Galileya Medison¹, Abdullah Shalmani², XinSun Yang³, Wenying Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Research Center of Crop Stresses Resistance Technologies/ Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434025 China.
² State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology in Arid Areas, College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100 China.
³ Institute of Food Crops/Hubei Engineering and Technology Research Centre of Sweet Potato/Hubei Key Laboratory of Food Crop Germplasm and Genetic Improvement, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, 430064 China.

Abstract

Hydroxycinnamate-CoA quinate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HQT) enzyme affect plant secondary metabolism and are crucial for growth and development. To date, limited research on the genome-wide analysis of HQT family genes and their regulatory roles in chlorogenic acid (CGA) accumulation in leafy vegetable sweet potato is available. Here, a total of 58 HQT family genes in the sweet potato genome (named IbHQT) were identified and analyzed. We studied the chromosomal distribution, phylogenetic relationship, motifs distribution, collinearity, and cis-acting element analysis of HQT family genes. This study used two sweet potato varieties, high CGA content Fushu 7-6-14-7 (HC), and low CGA content Fushu 7-6 (LC). Based on the phylogenetic analysis, clade A was unique among the identified four clades as it contained HQT genes from various species. The chromosomal location and collinearity analysis revealed that tandem gene duplication may promote the IbHQT gene expansion and expression. The expression patterns and profile analysis showed changes in gene expression levels at different developmental stages and under cold, drought, and salt stress conditions. The expression analysis verified by qRT-PCR revealed that IbHQT genes were highly expressed in the HC variety leaves than in the LC variety. Furthermore, cloning and gene function analysis unveiled that IbHQT family genes are involved in the biosynthesis and accumulation of CGA in sweet-potato. This study expands our understanding of the regulatory role of HQT genes in sweet-potato and lays a foundation for further functional characterization and genetic breeding by engineering targeted HQT candidate genes in various sweet-potato varieties and other species.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-023-01299-4.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; Chlorogenic acid; Hydroxycinnamate-CoA quinate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase; Ipomoea batatas.

© Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.