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Evolutionary Metabolomics Identifies Substantial Metabolic Divergence between Maize and Its Wild Ancestor, Teosinte
Guanghui Xu1, Jingjing Cao1,2, Xufeng Wang1
1State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, National Maize Improvement Center, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Maize (MOA), Beijing Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Center for Crop Functional Genomics and Molecular Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
The Plant Cell
|June 23, 2019
Summary
Maize domestication reshaped its metabolome, with distinct metabolite sets diverging between teosinte and different maize types. Genetic analysis identified key genes controlling these metabolic changes.
Area of Science:
- Plant genetics
- Metabolomics
- Evolutionary biology
Background:
- Maize (Zea mays) evolved from teosinte, undergoing significant morphological and metabolic adaptations.
- Understanding metabolic changes during maize domestication is crucial but remains incomplete.
Purpose of the Study:
- To comprehensively assess metabolic divergence between maize and teosinte seedlings.
- To identify genetic factors underlying these metabolic shifts.
Main Methods:
- Comparative metabolomics of maize and teosinte.
- Analysis of a maize-by-teosinte cross population's metabolome.
- Integration of transcriptome data and gene functional analysis.
Main Results:
- 461 metabolites showed significant divergence.
- Teosinte, tropical, and temperate maize diverged in distinct metabolite classes (alkaloids, terpenoids, lipids, benzoxazinoids).
- Recent maize evolution (tropical vs. temperate) involved simpler genetic architectures and identified candidate genes under selection.
Conclusions:
- Domestication profoundly altered the maize metabolome.
- Genetic factors controlling metabolic divergence vary across evolutionary stages.
- Integrating omics data is effective for dissecting complex traits like metabolic evolution.
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