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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #355193
Title: De novo characterization of the goji berry ( Lycium barbarium L.) fruit transcriptome and analysis of candidate genes involved in sugar metabolism under different CO2 concentrations

Author
item MA, YAPING - Ningxia University
item Reddy, Vangimalla
item MURA, JYOSTNA - Oak Ridge Institute For Science And Education (ORISE)
item SONG, LIHUA - Ningxia University
item CAO, BING - Ningxia University

Submitted to: Tree Physiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/25/2019
Publication Date: 3/19/2019
Citation: Ma, Y., Reddy, V., Mura, J.D., Song, L., Cao, B. 2019. De novo characterization of the goji berry ( Lycium barbarium L.) fruit transcriptome and analysis of candidate genes involved in sugar metabolism under different CO2 concentrations. Tree Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpz014.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpz014

Interpretive Summary: Goji berry (Lycium barbarum L.), is one of the important economic crops, due to its exceptional nutrient value and medicinal benefits. In this study, we identified the genes affecting the fruit quality and sugar quantity of goji berry under elevated CO2 environment compared to ambient CO2. The results are useful to understand the response of goji berry to elevated CO2 and also to improve the fruit quality in the changing climate conditions.

Technical Abstract: Goji berry (Lycium barbarum L.), is one of the important economic crops cultivated in Ningxia Province of China, due to its exceptional nutrient value and medicinal benefits. Although reduced sugar levels in goji berry exposed to long-term elevated CO2 has been documented, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown. The objective of this study was to explore the transcriptome of goji berry fruit under ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations and further to screen the differentially expressed genes (DEG) for functions related to sugar metabolism. Fruit samples from goji berry exposed to ambient (400 µmol·mol-1) and elevated (700 µmol·mol-1) levels of CO2 for 120 days were used to construct cDNA libraries using a HiSeqTM2500 platform. Consequently, 81,100 unigenes were assembled, of which 35,111(43.3%) were annotated using various databases. Through DEG analysis, it was found that 55 genes were up-regulated and 18 were down-regulated in response to elevated CO2 treatment. The expression pattern of 19 selected genes was verified by qRT-PCR. Genes involved in the sugar metabolism and the related pathways were identified by Gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Furthermore, pathways associated with sugar metabolism were identified from the metabolic pathways involving all DEGs. Additionally, three genes, LBGAE (Lycium barbarum UDP-glucuronate 4-epimerase), LBGALA (Lycium barbarum alpha-galactosidase), and LBMS (Lycium barbarum malate synthase), involved in the regulation of sucrose, starch, and fructose conversion were found to be significantly overexpressed in elevated CO2. This study can provide gene sources for elucidating the molecular mechanisms of sugar metabolism in the fruit of goji berry under elevated CO2.