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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Development and EvoDevo
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1567247
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Genetic and Molecular Pathways in Plant Reproduction for Enhanced Crop Traits View all 3 articles
Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analysis Clarify the Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Formation of Sexual and Apomictic Persian Walnut (Juglans regia L.) Embryos
Provisionally accepted- College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, China
Purpose：Persian walnut (Juglans regia L.) is one of the world's economically significant dry fruits, which stems from the high nutritional value of its kernel and its uses in diverse industries. Walnuts species can employ sexual and apomictic reproductive strategies. Multi-omics analyses of apomictic walnut embryos have not yet been conducted. This study integrates transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses to reveal new insights into the formation of sexual and apomictic walnut embryos, providing a valuable foundation for future research on apomictic embryo development in walnuts.Method：To elucidate the mechanisms underlying these reproductive modes, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses were performed on the embryos of sexual and apomictic walnut species at different developmental stages.Results：Our findings revealed 321 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 19 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) in apomictic vs. sexual walnut embryos. The joint transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis revealed that DEGs and DAMs were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, plant hormone signal transduction, and tryptophan metabolic pathways. The content of DAMs, such as tryptamine, jasmonic acid (JA), and JAisoleucine, was significantly higher in embryos derived from flowers that had been forced to reproduce apomictically (subjected to polyvinyl alcohol-capped stigma treatment) than embryos derived from flowers that had been subjected to normal artificial pollination.
Keywords: Persian walnut, Juglans regia, Apomixis, embryo, Transcriptome, Metabolome
Received: 26 Jan 2025; Accepted: 31 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 bao, Chen, zhou and chen. 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:
Hong Chen, College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, China
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