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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Genet.
Sec. Genomics of Plants and the Phytoecosystem
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1419399
This article is part of the Research Topic Genetic, Evolution, and Utilization of Crop Germplasm in Crop Improvement View all 4 articles

Transcriptomic Analysis for the Gamma-Ray-Induced Sweetpotato Mutants with Altered Stem Growth Pattern

Provisionally accepted
Hyeong-Un LEE Hyeong-Un LEE 1,2Sangrea Shim Sangrea Shim 3Mi Nam Chung Mi Nam Chung 2Taeyoung Lee Taeyoung Lee 4Won Park Won Park 2Tae H. Kim Tae H. Kim 2Kyo Hwui Lee Kyo Hwui Lee 2Koan Sik Woo Koan Sik Woo 2Sang-Sik Nam Sang-Sik Nam 2Moon Young Kim Moon Young Kim 1Suk-Ha Lee Suk-Ha Lee 5*
  • 1 Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Bioresources and Research Institute of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Bioenergy Crop Research Institute, National Institute of Crop Science, Muan, Republic of Korea
  • 3 Department of Forest Resources, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Gangwon, Republic of Korea
  • 4 Bioinformatics Institute, Macrogen, Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 5 Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Sweetpotato faces breeding challenges due to physiological and genomic issues. Gamma radiation is a novel approach for inducing genetic variation in crops. We analyzed the transcriptomic changes in gamma ray-induced sweetpotato mutants with altered stem development with those in the wild-type 'Tongchaeru' cultivar. Methods: RNA sequencing analyses were performed to identify changes in the expression of genes related to stem development. Results: Transcriptomic analysis identified 8,931 up-regulated and 6,901 down-regulated genes, including the up-regulation of the auxin-responsive SMALL AUXIN UP RNA (SAUR) and three PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) genes. PIF4 is crucial for regulating the expression of early auxin-responsive SAUR genes and stem growth in Arabidopsis thaliana. In the mutant, several genes related to stem elongation, including PIF4 and those involved in various signaling pathways such as auxin and gibberellin, were up-regulated. Discussion: Our results suggest that gamma ray-induced mutations influence auxin-dependent stem development by modulating a complex regulatory network involving the expression of PIF4 and SAUR genes, and other signaling pathways such as gibberellin and ethylene signaling genes. This study enhances our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms underlying stem growth in sweetpotato, providing valuable insights for genomics-assisted breeding efforts.

    Keywords: Sweetpotato, Gamma-ray-induced mutagenesis, Stem development, RNA sequencing, Small auxin up RNA (SAUR), PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4)

    Received: 18 Apr 2024; Accepted: 11 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 LEE, Shim, Chung, Lee, Park, Kim, Lee, Woo, Nam, Kim and Lee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Suk-Ha Lee, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

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