Comparative Transcriptome Profiling Reveals the Genes Involved in Storage Root Expansion in Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.)

Weihan Song; Hui Yan; Meng Ma; Meng Kou; Chen Li; Wei Tang; Yicheng Yu; Qixian Hao; Thanhliem Nguyen; Xin Wang; Zhenyi Zhang; Chang You; Runfei Gao; Yungang Zhang; Qiang Li

doi:10.3390/genes13071156

Comparative Transcriptome Profiling Reveals the Genes Involved in Storage Root Expansion in Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.)

Genes (Basel). 2022 Jun 27;13(7):1156. doi: 10.3390/genes13071156.

Authors

Weihan Song¹, Hui Yan^{1

2}, Meng Ma^{1

2}, Meng Kou¹, Chen Li^{1

2}, Wei Tang^{1

2}, Yicheng Yu², Qixian Hao³, Thanhliem Nguyen⁴, Xin Wang¹, Zhenyi Zhang^{1

2}, Chang You^{1

2}, Runfei Gao¹, Yungang Zhang¹, Qiang Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Xuzhou Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Jiangsu Xuhuai District, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Breeding of Sweetpotato, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Xuzhou 221131, China.
² School of Life Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Research Center of Jiangsu Plant Gene Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
⁴ Department of Biology and Agricultural Engineering, Quynhon University, Quynhon 590000, Binhdinh, Vietnam.

Abstract

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is recognized as one of the most important root crops in the world by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The yield of sweetpotato is closely correlated with the rate of storage root (SR) formation and expansion. At present, most of the studies on sweetpotato SR expansion are focused on the physiological mechanism. To explore the SR expansion mechanism of sweetpotato, we performed transcriptome sequencing of SR harvested at 60, 90, 120, and 150 days after planting (DAP) to analyze two sweetpotato lines, Xuzishu 8 and its crossing progenies named Xu 18-192, which were selected from an F₁ segregation population of Xuzishu 8 and Meiguohong, in which SR expansion was delayed significantly. A total of 57,043 genes were produced using transcriptome sequencing, of which 1312 were differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in four SR growth periods of the sweetpotato lines. The combination of the KEGG and trend analysis revealed several key candidate genes involved in SR expansion. The SBEI gene involved in starch metabolism, and transcription factors ARF6, NF-YB3 and NF-YB10 were all significantly up-regulated during SR expansion. The data from this study provide insights into the complex mechanisms of SR formation and expansion in sweetpotato and identify new candidate genes for increasing the yield of sweetpotato.

Keywords: gene; storage root expansion; sweetpotato; transcription factor; transcriptome.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Gene Expression Profiling
Ipomoea batatas* / genetics
Plant Roots / metabolism

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1001300, 2019YFD1001304), the China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (CARS-10, Sweetpotato), Xuzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences Research Fund Project (RC2021004) and Xuzhou Key R & D Program (Modern Agriculture) (KC21116).