Analysis of Arabidopsis non-reference accessions reveals high diversity of metabolic gene clusters and discovers new candidate cluster members

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Date
2023
Authors
Marszalek-Zenczak, Malgorzata
Satyr, Anastasiia
Wojciechowski, Pawel
Zenczak, Michal
Sobieszczanska, Paula
Brzezinski, Krzysztof
Iefimenko, Tetiana
Figlerowicz, Marek
Zmienko, Agnieszka
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Abstract
Metabolic gene clusters (MGCs) are groups of genes involved in a common biosynthetic pathway. They are frequently formed in dynamic chromosomal regions, which may lead to intraspecies variation and cause phenotypic diversity. We examined copy number variations (CNVs) in four Arabidopsis thaliana MGCs in over one thousand accessions with experimental and bioinformatic approaches. Tirucalladienol and marneral gene clusters showed little variation, and the latter was fixed in the population. Thalianol and especially arabidiol/baruol gene clusters displayed substantial diversity. The compact version of the thalianol gene cluster was predominant and more conserved than the noncontiguous version. In the arabidiol/baruol cluster, we found a large genomic insertion containing divergent duplicates of the CYP705A2 and BARS1 genes. The BARS1 paralog, which we named BARS2, encoded a novel oxidosqualene synthase. The expression of the entire arabidiol/baruol gene cluster was altered in the accessions with the duplication. Moreover, they presented different root growth dynamics and were associated with warmer climates compared to the reference-like accessions. In the entire genome, paired genes encoding terpene synthases and cytochrome P450 oxidases were more variable than their nonpaired counterparts. Our study highlights the role of dynamically evolving MGCs in plant adaptation and phenotypic diversity.
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copy number variation, biosynthetic gene cluster, secondary metabolism, oxidosqualene cyclase, triterpenes, cytochrome P450, article
Citation
Analysis of Arabidopsis non-reference accessions reveals high diversity of metabolic gene clusters and discovers new candidate cluster members / Malgorzata Marszalek-Zenczak, Anastasiia Satyr, Pawel Wojciechowski, Michal Zenczak, Paula Sobieszczanska, Krzysztof Brzezinski, Tetiana Iefimenko, Marek Figlerowicz, Agnieszka Zmienko // Frontiers in Plant Science. - 2023. - Vol. 14. - Article no. 1104303. - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1104303