Priego-Cubero Santiago, Liu Youming, Toyomasu Tomonobu, Gigl Michael, Hasegawa Yuto, Nojiri Hideaki, Dawid Corinna, Okada Kazunori, Becker Claude
Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 82152, Martinsried, Germany.
Agro-Biotechnology Research Center (AgTECH), Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences (GSALS), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan.
New Phytol. 2025 Mar;245(6):2681-2697. doi: 10.1111/nph.20416. Epub 2025 Jan 30.
Plants are master chemists and collectively are able to produce hundreds of thousands of different organic compounds. The genes underlying the biosynthesis of many specialized metabolites are organized in biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), which is hypothesized to ensure their faithful coinheritance and to facilitate their coordinated expression. In rice (Oryza sativa), momilactones are diterpenoids that act in plant defence and various organismic interactions. Many of the genes essential for momilactone biosynthesis are grouped in a BGC. We applied comparative genomics of diploid and allotetraploid Oryza species to reconstruct the species-specific architecture, evolutionary trajectory, and sub-functionalisation of the momilactone biosynthetic gene cluster (MBGC) in the Oryza genus. Our data show that the evolution of the MBGC is marked by lineage-specific rearrangements and gene copy number variation, as well as by occasional cluster loss. We identified a distinct cluster architecture in Oryza coarctata, which represents the first instance of an alternative architecture of the MBGC in Oryza and strengthens the idea of a common origin of the cluster in Oryza and the distantly related genus Echinochloa. Our research illustrates the evolutionary and functional dynamics of a biosynthetic gene cluster within a plant genus.
植物堪称化学大师，它们共同能够合成成千上万种不同的有机化合物。许多特殊代谢产物生物合成的相关基因被组织成生物合成基因簇（BGCs），据推测这能确保它们的稳定共同遗传并促进其协调表达。在水稻（Oryza sativa）中，稻瘟菌素是一类二萜类化合物，在植物防御和各种生物相互作用中发挥作用。稻瘟菌素生物合成所需的许多基因被归为一个BGC。我们应用二倍体和异源四倍体稻属物种的比较基因组学来重建稻属中稻瘟菌素生物合成基因簇（MBGC）的物种特异性结构、进化轨迹和亚功能化。我们的数据表明，MBGC的进化以谱系特异性重排、基因拷贝数变异以及偶尔的基因簇丢失为特征。我们在紧穗野生稻中鉴定出一种独特的基因簇结构，这代表了稻属中MBGC另一种结构的首个实例，并强化了稻属中该基因簇与远缘属稗属有共同起源的观点。我们的研究阐明了植物属内生物合成基因簇的进化和功能动态。
