title: The Coordination of Gene Expression within Photosynthesis Pathway for Acclimation of C4 Energy Crop Miscanthus lutarioriparius.
abstract: As a promising candidate for the second-generation C4 energy crop, Miscanthus lutarioriparius has well acclimated to the water-limited and high-light Loess Plateau in China by improving photosynthesis rate and water use efficiency (WUE) compared to its native habitat along Yangtze River. Photosynthetic genes were demonstrated as one major category of the candidate genes underlying the physiological superiority. To further study how photosynthetic genes interact to improve the acclimation potential of M. lutarioriparius, population expression patterns within photosynthesis pathway were explored between one mild environment and one harsh environment. We found that 108 transcripts in assembled transcriptome of M. lutarioriparius were highly similar to genes in three Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) photosynthesis pathways of sorghum and maize. Phylogenetic analyses using sorghum, maize, rice, and Arabidopsis genes of dark reaction identified 23 orthologs and 30 paralogs of M. lutarioriparius photosynthetic genes. These genes were also clustered into two kinds of expression pattern. 87% of transcripts in dark reaction were up-regulated and all 14 chloroplast-encoded transcripts in light reaction increased degradation in the harsh environment compared to the mild environment. Moreover, 80.8% of photosynthetic transcripts were coordinated at transcription level under the two environments. Interestingly, LHCI and PSI were significantly correlated with F-ATPase and C4 cycle. Overall, this study indicates the coordinated expression between cyclic electron transport (consisting of LHCI, PSI, and ATPase) and CO2-concentrating mechanism (C4 cycle) could account for photosynthesis plasticity on M. lutarioriparius acclimation potential.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Shilai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Beijing Botanical Garden, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lifang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Beijing Botanical Garden, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Yangyang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Caiyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Beijing Botanical Garden, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jianqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China; Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Beijing Botanical Garden, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sang
keywords: C4 photosynthesis; acclimation; cyclic electron transport; expression coordination; water use efficiency