Dataset on exogenous application of salicylic acid and methyljasmonate and the accumulation of caffeine in young leaf tissues and catabolically inactive endosperms

Exogenous exposure of coffee plants to 50 μM and 500 μM salicylic acid through liquid hydroponic medium or the exposure to volatile fumes of methyljasmonate was carried out to study the role of salicylic acid and methyljasmonate on the accumulation of caffeine and other methylxanthines like 7-methylxanthine, theobromine and theophylline. Transcript levels of the first, second and third N-methyltransferase involved in the core caffeine biosynthetic pathway namely, xanthosine methyltransferase (XMT), methylxanthine methyltransferase (MXMT) and di-methylxanthine methyltransferase (DXMT) was investigated by semi-quantitative RT-PCR for validating the reason behind the changes of caffeine biosynthetic potential under the influence of the two analogues of plant phytohormones. Maturing coffee fruits are known to be biologically inactive with respect to caffeine biosynthetic activity in the endosperms. To understand this, fruits were treated with different doses of salicylic acid in a time-course manner and the de-repression of tissue maturation-mediated knockdown of caffeine biosynthesis by exogenously applied salicylic acid was achieved. In our companion paper [1] it was shown that the repression of NMT genes during the dry weight accumulation phase of maturing endosperm could be relaxed by the exogenous application of salicylic acid and methyljasmonate. A probable model based on the work carried out therein and based on other literature [2], [3], [4] was proposed to describe that the crosstalk between salicylic acid or methyljasmonate and the ABA/ethylene pathway and might involve transcription factors downstream to the signaling cascade.