Genomic and transcriptomic analyses of Citrus sinensis varieties provide insights into Valencia orange fruit mastication trait formation

Valencia orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) (VO) is a type of late-ripening sweet orange whose ripening occurs 4 to 5 months later than that of the mid-ripening common sweet orange (CO). Notably, the mastication trait of VO fruit is inferior to that of CO fruit. To date, how inferior pulp mastication trait forms in VO has not been determined. In this study, 13 VO varieties and 12 CO varieties were subjected to whole-genome resequencing. A total of 2.98 million SNPs were identified from 25 varieties, and a SNP molecular marker was developed to distinguish VO and CO. Moreover, 144 and 141 genes identified by selective sweep analysis were selected during VO and CO evolution, respectively. Based on gene functional enrichment analysis, most of the selected VO genes were related to the stress response and lignin biosynthesis. Simultaneously, we comparatively analyzed the transcriptome profiles of peel and pulp tissues among three VO varieties and three CO varieties, and the results demonstrated differences in lignin biosynthesis between VO and CO fruits. Furthermore, coexpression network analysis was performed to identify hub genes of lignin-related and variety-specific networks, which included CsERF74, CsNAC25, CsHSFB3, CsSPL4/13, etc. Overall, this study provides important insights into the mastication trait formation of Valencia orange fruit.