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Lotus Cell Walls and the Genes Involved in its Synthesis and Modification

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Abstract

The lotus genome (Nelumbo nucifera (Gaertn.)) lacks the paleo-triplication found in other eudicots and has evolved remarkably slowly with fewer nucleotide mutations. It is thought to have greater retention of duplicated genes than other angiosperms. We evaluated the potential genes involved in cell wall synthesis and its modification, and ethylene synthesis and response. In many cell wall transferases and hydrolases families, lotus had fewer members in most families when compared to Arabidopsis. Lotus had similar or fewer members in each family as found in poplar, grape and papaya. The exceptions were in the sialyl and beta-glucuronsyl transferases where similar number were found as in the core eudicots. Lotus had similar numbers of polygalacturonase and pectin methyl esterases as found in Arabidopsis but fewer in all other hydrolases families. For starch degradation, lotus had only two alpha amylases predicted genes versus eight to ten in other eudicots, with similar numbers of beta amylase genes predicted. Lotus also had less than half the number of genes predicted for the enzymes involved in lignin and tannin synthesis compared to Arabidopsis. The stress plant growth regulator ethylene’s synthesis, reception and response predicted genes were fewer in lotus than other eudicots. Only two ethylene receptor genes were predicted in lotus with five reported for Arabidopsis and six for tomato. Our analysis does not supports the conclusion that this species has greater retention of duplicated genes though our data does support the conclusion that lotus split occurred at the base of the eudicots.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Robert E. Paull & Nancy Jung Chen

  2. Joint BioEnergy Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 5885 Hollis Street, Emeryville, CA, 94608, USA

    Andrew Carroll

Authors
  1. Robert E. Paull
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  2. Andrew Carroll
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  3. Nancy Jung Chen
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Correspondence to Robert E. Paull.

Additional information

Communicated by: Graham Bonnett

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Table 1

Lotus Cell wall Carbohydrate Enzymes (XLSX 92 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Lotus Expansins (XLSX 34 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Lotus Ethylene Biosynthesis (XLSX 12 kb)

Supplementary Table 4

Lotus Laccase, PPO, Peroxidase (XLSX 15 kb)

Supplementary Table 5

Lotus Terpene synthesis (XLSX 51 kb)

Supplementary Table 6

Lotus Tannin Synthesis (XLSX 14 kb)

Supplementary Figure 1

(DOCX 1203 kb)

Supplementary Table 7

(PDF 132 kb)

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Paull, R.E., Carroll, A. & Chen, N.J. Lotus Cell Walls and the Genes Involved in its Synthesis and Modification. Tropical Plant Biol. 6, 152–160 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-013-9129-x

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