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Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize

Improving sulfur assimilation in maize kernels is essential due to humans and animals’ inability to synthesize methionine. Serine acetyltransferase (SAT) is a critical enzyme that controls cystine biosynthesis in plants. In this study, all SAT gene members were genome-wide characterized by using a s...

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Autores principales: Zhao, Zhixuan, Li, Shuai, Ji, Chen, Zhou, Yong, Li, Changsheng, Wang, Wenqin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33808582
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes12030437
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author Zhao, Zhixuan
Li, Shuai
Ji, Chen
Zhou, Yong
Li, Changsheng
Wang, Wenqin
author_facet Zhao, Zhixuan
Li, Shuai
Ji, Chen
Zhou, Yong
Li, Changsheng
Wang, Wenqin
author_sort Zhao, Zhixuan
collection PubMed
description Improving sulfur assimilation in maize kernels is essential due to humans and animals’ inability to synthesize methionine. Serine acetyltransferase (SAT) is a critical enzyme that controls cystine biosynthesis in plants. In this study, all SAT gene members were genome-wide characterized by using a sequence homology search. The RNA-seq quantification indicates that they are highly expressed in leaves, other than root and seeds, consistent with their biological functions in sulfur assimilation. With the recently released 25 genomes of nested association mapping (NAM) founders representing the diverse maize stock, we had the opportunity to investigate the SAT genetic variation comprehensively. The abundant transposon insertions into SAT genes indicate their driving power in terms of gene structure and genome evolution. We found that the transposon insertion into exons could change SAT gene transcription, whereas there was no significant correlation between transposable element (TE) insertion into introns and their gene expression, indicating that other regulatory elements such as promoters could also be involved. Understanding the SAT gene structure, gene expression and genetic variation involved in natural selection and species adaption could precisely guide genetic engineering to manipulate sulfur assimilation in maize and to improve nutritional quality.
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spelling pubmed-80035302021-03-28 Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize Zhao, Zhixuan Li, Shuai Ji, Chen Zhou, Yong Li, Changsheng Wang, Wenqin Genes (Basel) Article Improving sulfur assimilation in maize kernels is essential due to humans and animals’ inability to synthesize methionine. Serine acetyltransferase (SAT) is a critical enzyme that controls cystine biosynthesis in plants. In this study, all SAT gene members were genome-wide characterized by using a sequence homology search. The RNA-seq quantification indicates that they are highly expressed in leaves, other than root and seeds, consistent with their biological functions in sulfur assimilation. With the recently released 25 genomes of nested association mapping (NAM) founders representing the diverse maize stock, we had the opportunity to investigate the SAT genetic variation comprehensively. The abundant transposon insertions into SAT genes indicate their driving power in terms of gene structure and genome evolution. We found that the transposon insertion into exons could change SAT gene transcription, whereas there was no significant correlation between transposable element (TE) insertion into introns and their gene expression, indicating that other regulatory elements such as promoters could also be involved. Understanding the SAT gene structure, gene expression and genetic variation involved in natural selection and species adaption could precisely guide genetic engineering to manipulate sulfur assimilation in maize and to improve nutritional quality. MDPI 2021-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8003530/ /pubmed/33808582 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes12030437 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Zhao, Zhixuan
Li, Shuai
Ji, Chen
Zhou, Yong
Li, Changsheng
Wang, Wenqin
Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize
title Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize
title_full Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize
title_fullStr Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize
title_full_unstemmed Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize
title_short Genetic Variation of the Serine Acetyltransferase Gene Family for Sulfur Assimilation in Maize
title_sort genetic variation of the serine acetyltransferase gene family for sulfur assimilation in maize
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33808582
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes12030437
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