Abstract
Mountain pepper (Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers.) (Lauraceae) is an important industrial crop as an ingredient in cosmetics, pesticides, food additives and potential biofuels. These properties are attributed to monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. However, there is still no integrated model describing differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in terpenoid biosynthesis during the fruit development of L. cubeba. Here, we performed digital gene expression (DGE) using the Illumina NGS platform to evaluated changes in gene expression during fruit development in L. cubeba. DGE generated expression data for approximately 19354 genes. Fruit at 60 days after flowering (DAF) served as the control, and a total of 415, 1255, 449 and 811 up-regulated genes and 505, 1351, 1823 and 1850 down-regulated genes were identified at 75, 90, 105 and 135 DAF, respectively. Pathway analysis revealed 26 genes involved in terpenoid biosynthesis pathways. Three DEGs had continued increasing or declining trends during the fruit development. The quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) results of five differentially expressed genes were consistent with those obtained from Illumina sequencing. These results provide a comprehensive molecular biology background for research on fruit development, and information that should aid in metabolic engineering to increase the yields of L. cubeba essential oil.
Highlights
Mountain pepper (Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Persoon) is a fast-growing and aromatic plant of the Lauraceae family, indigenous to Eastern Asia
Our results provide a comprehensive understanding of digital gene expression (DGE) patterns and expression levels during L. cubeba fruit development, which should provide an invaluable resource for the identification genes involved in terpenoid biosynthesis, and promote a systematic understanding of the molecular mechanisms of oil production of L. cubeba in the future
The results indicated that 75 and 90 days after flowering (DAF) were developmental stages characterized by rapid increases in the concentration that 75 and 90 DAF were developmental stages characterized by rapid increases in the concentration of citral and the oil content, respectively, whereas 105 DAF was the key stage for citral concentration
Summary
Mountain pepper (Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Persoon) is a fast-growing and aromatic plant of the Lauraceae family, indigenous to Eastern Asia. The aromatic essential oil extracted from the fruits and roots, which possesses an intensely lemon-like odor, has been widely used as a raw material for cosmetics, pesticides, food additives and biodiesel fuel [1]. The essential oil exhibits a wide-range of bioactivities [2]. These uses of L. cubeba are attributed to the main components in the fruit oils, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, the most dominant component of which is citral, which constitutes more than 80% of the chemical content of the essential oils. Considerable research efforts related to the oil biosynthesis in fruits are urgently needed, and it is believed to be a promising avenue for increasing the content of chemicals of interest
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