Transcriptional activation of BolBCAT4 genes enhanced nutritional qualityaliphatic glucosinolates accmulationaccumulationnutrient value in cabbage

Chengtai Yan ¹ Jiahao Zhang ¹ Wenjing Yang ¹ Yao Liu ¹ Xue Bai ¹ Qi Zeng ¹ XiFan Liu ¹ Yanjing Ren ² Dengkui Shao ^2* Baohua Li ^1*

• ¹ State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, Northwest A and F University, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, China
• ² Qinghai University, Xining, Qinghai Province, China

Aliphatic glucosinolates are a large group of plant specialized metabolites in Brassica vegetables, and some of their degradation products are key nutrients with significant beneficialbeneficially effects for human health. To iIncreasinge the nutritional qualitynutrient value is one of the central research questions and breeding goals for Brassica vegetables. Transcription factors play key roles in modulating aliphatic glucosinolates biosynthesis, and mMajor progresses hasve been made in understanding transcriptional regulation of aliphatic glucosinolates biosynthesis in the model plant, while little is known about it in Brassica vegetables. In this study, we used cabbage to study the transcriptional regulation of BolBCAT4 genes, the first set of biosynthetic genes in methioninederived aliphatic glucosinolate metabolism, and identified and functionally validated four4 upstream positive regulators of BolBCAT4 genes, BolMYB3R, BolbHLH153, BolMED4 and BolERF741234, with consistent phenotypic effects of inducing short chain aliphatic glucosinolates, including glucoraphanin (4MSO). Our work confirmed the biological functions of BolBCAT4 genes, identified dozens of candidate upstream regulators with the above four regulators validated, and potentially provided valuable regulatory mechanisms and breeding targets for enhancing the nutritional qualitynutrient value in cabbage.