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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1435154

Comparative Integrated multispectral imaging, germination phenotype, and transcriptomic analysis provide insights into flavonoid biosynthesis, terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, and carbon metabolism in seed vigor responsive mechanisms in quinoa under artificial accelerated aging

Provisionally accepted
Huifang Yan Huifang Yan 1,2,3*Zhao Zhang Zhao Zhang 1,2,3Yanzhen Lv Yanzhen Lv 1,2,3Yuting Nie Yuting Nie 1,2,3
  • 1 College of Grassland Science, Qingdao Agriculture University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 2 Key Laboratory of National Forestry and Grassland Administration on Grassland Resources and Ecology in the Yellow River Delta, Qingdao, China
  • 3 Qingdao Key Laboratory of Specialty Plant Germplasm Innovation and Utilization in Saline Soils of Coastal Beach, Qingdao, China

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

    Seed vigor is an important trait closely related to improved seed quality and long-term germplasm conservation, and it gradually decreases during storage, which has become a major concern for agriculture. However, the underlying regulatory mechanisms of seed vigor loss in terms of genes remain largely unknown in quinoa. Here, two cultivars of quinoa seeds with different storage performance, Longli No.4 (L4) and Longli No.1 (L1), were subjected to transcriptome sequencing to decipher the pathways and genes possibly related to vigor loss under artificial aging. Multispectral imaging features and germination phenotypes showed that significantly less seed vigor loss in L1 was significantly less than that in L4, indicating L1 seeds having stronger aging resistance and storability. Totally, 272 and 75 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were, respectively, identified in L4 and L1 during aging. Transcriptomic analysis further revealed the differences in metabolic pathways, specifically speakingespecially, flavonoid biosynthesis, TCA cycle, and terpenoid backbone biosynthesis were significantly enriched in L4 seeds, while carbon metabolism in L1 seeds, which involved key genes such as CHS, CHI, AACT, ENO1, IDH, NADP-ME, and HAO2L. It indicated that the adverse effects on flavonoids and terpenoids induced by aging might be the significant reasons for more vigor loss in storage sensitive seeds, whereas storage tolerant seeds had a stronger ability to maintain carbon metabolism and energy supply. These findings elucidated the underlying molecular mechanism of seed vigor loss in quinoa, which also provided novel insights into improving seed vigor through modern molecular breeding strategies.

    Keywords: Quinoa, Seed vigor, Transcriptome, Flavonoid biosynthesis, Carbon Metabolism, energy supply

    Received: 19 May 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yan, Zhang, Lv and Nie. 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: Huifang Yan, College of Grassland Science, Qingdao Agriculture University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.