Annotation of genes involved in gamma-aminobutyric multiplication during coix germination by metabolome and transcriptome analysis

ABSTRACT

Job’s tears (coix) is a widely used grain with rich and balanced nutritional value. In this study, a total of 71 metabolites, including amino acid metabolism, sugar metabolism and fatty acid metabolism, were significantly increased in the germinating coix through liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Significant increase in gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) content during seed germination was detected in the metabolites detected. Transcript profiles generated through high-throughput RNA-sequencing data and 2431 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. The functional of DEGs were also significantly clustered in glucose metabolism and fatty acid metabolism. In the annotation of metabolite variation and differentially expressed genes, 23 regulatory genes and 10 significantly enriched metabolites for GABA content proliferation during coix germination were identified by association analysis. These results provided a theoretical basis for understanding the germination mechanism of coix and promoting its production and application.

KEYWORDS:

• Job’s-tears (coix)
• gamma-aminobutyric
• metabolome
• transcriptome
• seed germination

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors contributions

DH conceived and designed the experiments. DH and DD wrote the manuscript. YH and GD performed the experiments. DD and YH analyzed the data. XZ and YD revised the manuscript. DH and DD contributed equally to the paper. All authors have read and gave final approval for publication. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The samples used in this study were grow in China and collected by our lab (College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Taiyuan Normal University (Taiyuan, Shanxi, China). Special thanks to Senior Agronomist Xiangdong Li of Karst Regional Development Institute, Southwest Guizhou for his outstanding contribution in the early collection of germplasm resources! All authors stated that this study comply with the Chinese legislation and the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included in the article and its additional files. The dataset and materials presented in the investigation is not publicly available due to privacy concern but will be available from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Germplasm Innovation in Mountainous Region (Ministry of Education-2019-034), the Critical Talent Workstation Project (TYSGJ202201), the Basic Research Program of Shanxi Province (202203021222242), the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1001300, 2019YFD1001303), the Natural Science Foundation of China (31960415), and the Teaching Content and Curriculum System Reform Project of Higher Education Institutions in Guizhou Province (2019202, 2020035), the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of University in Shanxi Province (grant number2019L0802).