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HvBGlu3, a GH1 β-glucosidase enzyme gene, negatively influences β-glucan content in barley grains

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HvBGlu3, a β-glucosidase enzyme gene, negatively influences β-glucan content in barley grains by mediating starch and sucrose metabolism in developing grains.

Abstract

Barley grains are rich in β-glucan, an important factor affecting end-use quality. Previously, we identified several stable marker-trait associations (MTAs) and novel candidate genes associated with β-glucan content in barley grains using GWAS (Genome Wide Association Study) analysis. The gene HORVU3Hr1G096910, encoding β-glucosidase 3, named HvBGlu3, is found to be associated with β-glucan content in barley grains. In this study, conserved domain analysis suggested that HvBGlu3 belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 1 (GH1). Gene knockout assay revealed that HvBGlu3 negatively influenced β-glucan content in barley grains. Transcriptome analysis of developing grains of hvbglu3 mutant and the wild type indicated that the knockout of the gene led to the increased expression level of genes involved in starch and sucrose metabolism. Glucose metabolism analysis showed that the contents of many sugars in developing grains were significantly changed in hvbglu3 mutants. In conclusion, HvBGlu3 modulates β-glucan content in barley grains by mediating starch and sucrose metabolism in developing grains. The obtained results may be useful for breeders to breed elite barley cultivars for food use by screening barley lines with loss of function of HvBGlu3 in barley breeding.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Kabin Xie from Huazhong Agricultural University for providing the pRGEB32 plasmid vector and the technical support in sugar determination from MetWare Co., Ltd. (http://www.metware.cn/, Wuhan, China)

Funding

This work was funded by the Key Research Foundation of Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province of China (2021C02057, 2020C02002, 2021C02064-3), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32171917), the Science and Technology Program of Zhejiang Province of China (LGN20C130007) and China Agriculture Research System (CARS-05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Crop Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    La Geng, Mengdi Li, Shanggeng Xie, Han Wang, Xinyi He, Guoping Zhang & Lingzhen Ye

  2. Shandong (Linyi) Institute of Modern Agriculture, Zhejiang University, Linyi, 276000, China

    Nannan Sun, Guoping Zhang & Lingzhen Ye

  3. New Rural Development Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Lingzhen Ye

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  1. La Geng
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Contributions

GZ and LY developed the experimental design and conceived the project. LG, ML, SX, XH, HW and NS performed the experiments. LG, ML and SX conducted and validated the phenotypic experiments. LG, LY and GZ wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lingzhen Ye.

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Geng, L., Li, M., Xie, S. et al. HvBGlu3, a GH1 β-glucosidase enzyme gene, negatively influences β-glucan content in barley grains. Theor Appl Genet 137, 14 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-023-04517-5

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