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Characterization of expansin genes and their transcriptional regulation by histone modifications in strawberry

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Abstract

Main conclusion

The possible candidate expansin genes, which may be important for strawberry fruit softening, have been identified in the diploid woodland strawberry Fragaria vesca and the octoploid cultivated strawberry Fragaria × ananassa and their transcriptional regulation by histone modifications has been studied.

Abstract

Softening process greatly affects fruit texture and shelf life. Expansins (EXPs) are a group of structural proteins participating in cell wall loosening, which break the hydrogen bonding between cellulose microfibrils and hemicelluloses. However, our knowledge on how EXP genes are regulated in fruit ripening, especially in non-climacteric fleshy fruits, is limited. Here, we have identified the EXP genes in both the octoploid cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) and one of its diploid progenitor species, woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca). We found that EXP proteins in F. × ananassa were structurally more divergent than the ones in F. vesca. Transcriptome data suggested that FaEXP88, FaEXP114, FveEXP11 and FveEXP33 were the four candidate EXP genes more likely involved in fruit softening, whose transcript levels dramatically increased when firmness decreased during fruit maturation. Phylogenetic analyses showed that those candidate genes were closely clustered, indicating the presence of homoeolog expression dominance in the EXP gene family in strawberry. Moreover, we have performed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments to investigate the distribution of histone modifications along the promoters and genic regions of the EXP genes in F. vesca. ChIP data revealed that the transcript levels of EXP genes were highly correlated with the enrichment of H3K9/K14 acetylation and H3K27 tri-methylation. Collectively, this study identifies the key EXP genes involved in strawberry fruit softening and reveals a regulatory role of histone modifications in their transcriptional regulation, which would facilitate functional studies of the EXP genes in the ripening of non-climacteric fruits.

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Abbreviations

ChIP:

Chromatin immunoprecipitation

EXPA(B):

α-Expansin (ß-Expansin)

EXLA(B):

Expansin-like A(B)

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Xin Qiao and Yang Yuan for technical support for the bioinformatic analysis. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972382 to TG).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972382 to TG).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Plant Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement and College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Qin Mu, Xianyang Li, Jianhua Luo, Qinwei Pan & Tingting Gu

  2. Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    Yi Li

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  1. Qin Mu
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Mu, Q., Li, X., Luo, J. et al. Characterization of expansin genes and their transcriptional regulation by histone modifications in strawberry. Planta 254, 21 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-021-03665-6

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