Abstract
The diversity in plant metabolites with improved phytonutrients is essential to achieve global food security and sustainable crop yield. Our study using computational metabolomics genome wide association study (cmGWAS) reports on a comprehensive profiling of threonine (Thr) metabolite in rice. Sixteen abiotic stress responsive (AbSR) – Thr metabolite producing genes (ThrMPG), modulate metabolite levels and play a significant role determining both physiological and nutritional importance of rice. These AbSR-ThrMPG were computationally analysed for their protein properties using OryzaCyc through plant metabolic network analyser. A total of 1373 and 1028 SNPs were involved in complex traits and genomic variations. Comparative mapping of AbSR-ThrMPG revealed the chromosomal colinearity with C4 grass species. Further, computational expression pattern of these genes predicted a differential expression profiling in diverse developmental tissues. Protein interaction of protein coding gene sequences revealed that the abiotic stresses (AbS) are multigenic in nature. In silico expression of AbSR-ThrMPG determined the putative involvement in response to individual AbS. This is the first comprehensive genome wide study reporting on AbSR –ThrMPG analysis in rice. The results of this study provide a pivotal resource for further functional investigation of these key genes in the vital areas of manipulating AbS signaling in rice improvement.
Highlights
Plants produce a wide array of biological and chemically altered compounds
Threonine (Thr) metabolite was used as a query in plant metabolic network database to retrieve the metabolite producing genes (MPG) and their biosynthesis pathway (Fig. 1)
Sixteen abiotic stress responsible (AbSR) - Thr metabolite producing genes (ThrMPG) genes that are involved in abiotic stress dynamics were identified (Table 1)
Summary
Plants produce a wide array of biological and chemically altered compounds. Metabolites generated play an essential role in their growth, development, and modulate environmental interactions[1,2]. Though enough reports are available on several aspects for this well characterized model plant, to the best of our knowledge, no cmGWAS analysis has been carried out so far, despite the availability of high quality of reference genome and self-fertilization process[17,24] Taking this into consideration, we identified the Thr metabolite producing genes (ThrMPG) involved in Thr biosynthesis. Comparative mapping led to the identification of ThrMPG and their synteny in C4 grass genomes These genes are to be studied further to characterize and delineate their molecular interventions in AbS signaling and metabolic engineering for the production of C4 rice plants with an improved nutrient traits and AbS tolerance
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
