Functional diversity of oxidosqualene cyclases in genus Oryza.

Triterpene skeletons, catalyzing by 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclases (OSCs), are essential for synthesis of steroids and triterpenoids. In japonica rice cultivars Zhonghua11, a total of 12 OsOSCs have been found. While the catalytic functions of OsOSC1, 3, 4, 9, and 10 remain unclear, the functions of the other OsOSCs have been well studied.

Knockout of CAFFEOYL-COA 3-O-METHYLTRANSFERASE 6/6L enhances the S/G ratio of lignin monomers and disease resistance in .

Background: is an important economic crop, which is widely planted in the world. Lignin is very important for maintaining the physiological and stress-resistant functions of tobacco. However, higher lignin content will produce lignin gas, which is not conducive to the formation of tobacco quality.

Evaluation of Cooked Rice for Eating Quality and Its Components in Rice.

At present, ''eating well" is increasingly desired by people instead of merely ''being full". Rice provides the majority of daily caloric needs for half of the global human population. However, eating quality is difficult to objectively evaluate in rice breeding programs.

Biosynthesis and transport of pollen coat precursors in angiosperms.

The pollen coat is a hydrophobic mixture on the pollen grain surface, which plays an important role in protecting male gametes from various environmental stresses and microorganism attacks, and in pollen-stigma interactions during pollination in angiosperms. An abnormal pollen coat can result in humidity-sensitive genic male sterility (HGMS), which can be used in two-line hybrid crop breeding. Despite the crucial functions of the pollen coat and the application prospect of its mutants, few studies have focused on pollen coat formation.

The global integrative network: integration of signaling and metabolic pathways.

Unlabelled: The crosstalk between signaling and metabolic pathways has been known to play key roles in human diseases and plant biological processes. The integration of signaling and metabolic pathways can provide an essential reference framework for crosstalk analysis. However, current databases use distinct structures to present signaling and metabolic pathways, which leads to the chaos in the integrated networks.

The genome of sheds light on the biosynthesis, origin and evolution of the medicinally important diosgenin saponins.

Diosgenin saponins isolated from species such as exhibit a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities. Diosgenin, the aglycone of diosgenin saponins, is an important starting material for the production of steroidal drugs. However, how plants produce diosgenin saponins and the origin and evolution of the diosgenin saponin biosynthetic pathway remain a mystery.

Improving bread wheat yield through modulating an unselected AP2/ERF gene.

Crop breeding heavily relies on natural genetic variation. However, additional new variations are desired to meet the increasing human demand. Inflorescence architecture determines grain number per spike, a major determinant of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.

Jujube metabolome selection determined the edible properties acquired during domestication.

Plants supply both food and medicinal compounds, which are ascribed to diverse metabolites produced by plants. However, studies on domestication-driven changes in the metabolome and genetic basis of bioactive molecules in perennial fruit trees are generally lacking. Here, we conducted multidimensional analyses revealing a singular domestication event involving the genomic and metabolomic selection of jujube trees (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.

Mining plant metabolomes: Methods, applications, and perspectives.

Plants produce a variety of metabolites that are essential for plant growth and human health. To fully understand the diversity of metabolites in certain plants, lots of methods have been developed for metabolites detection and data processing. In the data-processing procedure, how to effectively reduce false-positive peaks, analyze large-scale metabolic data, and annotate plant metabolites remains challenging.

Diverse triterpene skeletons are derived from the expansion and divergent evolution of 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclases in plants.

Triterpenoids are one of the largest groups of secondary metabolites and exhibit diverse structures, which are derived from C30 skeletons that are biosynthesized the isoprenoid pathway by cyclization of 2,3-oxidosqualene. Triterpenoids have a wide range of biological activities, and are used in functional foods, drugs, and as industrial materials. Due to the low content levels in their native plants and limited feasibility and efficiency of chemical synthesis, heterologous biosynthesis of triterpenoids is the most promising strategy.

Mapping causal genes and genetic interactions for agronomic traits using a large F2 population in rice.

Dissecting the genetic mechanisms underlying agronomic traits is of great importance for crop breeding. Agronomic traits are usually controlled by multiple quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genetic interactions, and mapping the underlying causal genes is still labor-intensive and time-consuming. Here, we present a genetic tool for directly targeting the specific causal genes by using a single-gene resolution linkage map that was constructed from 3756 F2 rice plants via targeted sequencing technology and Tukey-Kramer multiple comparisons test.

Expansion within the CYP71D subfamily drives the heterocyclization of tanshinones synthesis in Salvia miltiorrhiza.

Tanshinones are the bioactive nor-diterpenoid constituents of the Chinese medicinal herb Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza). These groups of chemicals have the characteristic furan D-ring, which differentiates them from the phenolic abietane-type diterpenoids frequently found in the Lamiaceae family. However, how the 14,16-epoxy is formed has not been elucidated.

Characterization of a 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclase in the toosendanin biosynthetic pathway of Melia toosendan.

Toosendanin, bearing a furan ring, is a limonoid belonging to the group of tetranortriterpenoids. Toosendanin is a phytochemical found in the medicinal plant Melia toosendan Sieb. et Zucc.

QPMASS: A parallel peak alignment and quantification software for the analysis of large-scale gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomics datasets.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is a robust analytical platform for analysis of small molecules. Recently, it is widely used for large-scale metabolomics studies, in which hundreds or even thousands of samples are analyzed simultaneously, producing a very large and complex GC-MS datasets. A number of software are currently available for processing GC-MS data, but it is too compute-intensive for them to efficiently and accurately align chromatographic peaks from thousands of samples.

Orthologous receptor kinases quantitatively affect the host status of barley to leaf rust fungi.

Global food security depends on cereal crops with durable disease resistance. Most cereals are colonized by rust fungi, which are pathogens of major significance for global agriculture. Cereal rusts display a high degree of host specificity and one rust species or forma specialis generally colonizes only one cereal host.

Improvement of multiplex semi-nested PCR system for screening of rare mutations by high-throughput sequencing.

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is an efficient gene-editing method, but it is difficult to obtain mutants for some specific species and special genome structures. A previously reported multiplexed, semi-nested PCR target-enrichment approach, which does not rely on transgenic technology, has been shown to be an effective and affordable strategy for the discovery of rare mutations in a large sodium azide-induced rice population. However, this strategy has the potential for further optimization.

Cytochrome P450 family member CYP96B5 hydroxylates alkanes to primary alcohols and is involved in rice leaf cuticular wax synthesis.

Odd-numbered primary alcohols are components of plant cuticular wax, but their biosynthesis remains unknown. We isolated a rice wax crystal-sparse leaf 5 (WSL5) gene using a map-based cloning strategy. The function of WSL5 was illustrated by overexpression and knockout in rice, heterologous expression in Arabidopsis and transient expression in tobacco leaves.

An Efficient System for Transposon Tagging in .

Transposon tagging is a powerful tool that has been widely applied in several species for insertional mutagenesis in plants. Several efforts have aimed to create transfer-DNA (T-DNA) insertional mutant populations in , a monocot plant used as a model system to study temperate cereals, but there has been a lack of research aimed at using transposon strategies. Here, we describe the application of a maize () () transposon tagging system in The :: cassette and element were constructed within the same T-DNA and transformed into plants.

CsMYB60 is a key regulator of flavonols and proanthocyanidans that determine the colour of fruit spines in cucumber.

Spine colour is an important fruit quality trait that influences the commercial value of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). However, little is known about the metabolites and the regulatory mechanisms of their biosynthesis in black spine varieties. In this study, we determined that the pigments of black spines are flavonoids, including flavonols and proanthocyanidins (PAs).

Transcriptomic and metabolic flux analyses reveal shift of metabolic patterns during rice grain development.

Background: Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important grain crops, which serves as food source for nearly half of the world population. The study of rice development process as well as related strategies for production has made significant progress. However, the comprehensive study on development of different rice tissues at both transcriptomic and metabolic flux level across different stages was lacked.

Identification of key amino acid residues determining product specificity of 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclase in Oryza species.

Triterpene synthases, also known as 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclases (OSCs), synthesize diverse triterpene skeletons that form the basis of an array of functionally divergent steroids and triterpenoids. Tetracyclic and pentacyclic triterpene skeletons are synthesized via protosteryl and dammarenyl cations, respectively. The mechanism of conversion between two scaffolds is not well understood.