Characterization and functional analysis of the Hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA: shikimate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HCT) gene family in poplar

Nan Chao; Qi Qi; Shuang Li; Brent Ruan; Xiangning Jiang; Ying Gai

doi:10.7717/peerj.10741

Characterization and functional analysis of the Hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA: shikimate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HCT) gene family in poplar

PeerJ. 2021 Feb 25:9:e10741. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10741. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Nan Chao^{1

2

3}, Qi Qi^{2

4}, Shuang Li², Brent Ruan⁵, Xiangning Jiang^{2

6}, Ying Gai^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
² College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
³ School of Biotechnology, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China.
⁴ College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Urbana Champaign, IL, USA.
⁶ National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, the Tree and Ornamental Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Laboratory of Chinese Forestry Administration, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA: shikimate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HCT) divides the mass flux to H, G and S units in monolignol biosynthesis and affects lignin content. Ten HCT homologs were identified in the Populus trichocarpa (Torr. & Gray) genome. Both genome duplication and tandem duplication resulted in the expansion of HCT orthologs in Populus. Comprehensive analysis including motif analysis, phylogenetic analysis, expression profiles and co-expression analysis revealed the divergence and putative function of these candidate PoptrHCTs. PoptrHCT1 and 2 were identified as likely involved in lignin biosynthesis. PoptrHCT9 and 10- are likely to be involved in plant development and the response to cold stress. Similar functional divergence was also identified in Populus tomentosa Carr. Enzymatic assay of PtoHCT1 showed that PtoHCT1 was able to synthesize caffeoyl shikimate using caffeoyl-CoA and shikimic acid as substrates.

Keywords: Divergence; Enzymatic synthesis; Gene family; Hydroxycinnamoyl- CoA: shikimate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase; Monolignol; Populus.

Grants and funding

This work was jointly supported by the Beijing Higher Education Young Elite Teacher Project [YETP0755 granted to Dr. YING GAI], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [NSF 31300498 to Ying Gai]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.