AUTHOR=Hagelthorn Lynne , Fletcher Jennifer C. 

TITLE=The CLAVATA3/ESR-related peptide family in the biofuel crop pennycress

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=14

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2023.1240342

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2023.1240342

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>CLAVATA3/ESR-related (CLE) peptides perform a variety of important functions in plant development and historically have been targeted during the domestication of existing crops. Pennycress (<italic>Thlaspi arvense</italic>) is an emerging biofuel crop currently undergoing domestication that offers novel monetary and environmental incentives as a winter cover crop during an otherwise fallow period of the corn/soybean farming rotation. Here we report the characterization of the <italic>CLE</italic> gene family in pennycress through homology comparison of the CLE motif with other dicot species by conducting a homology comparison and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis supplemented with manual annotation. Twenty-seven pennycress <italic>CLE</italic> genes were identified, and their expression analyzed through transcriptome profiling and RT-qPCR. Our study provides a genome-wide analysis of the <italic>CLE</italic> gene family in pennycress and carries significant value for accelerating the domestication of this crop through identification of potential key developmental regulatory genes.</p>