Heritable temporal gene expression patterns correlate with metabolomic seed content in developing hexaploid oat seed

Area of Science:

• Plant Biology
• Genomics
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Oat is a globally significant cereal crop with high health-promoting compound content.
• A lack of a robust oat reference genome and transcriptome has hindered genetic studies.
• Understanding oat seed development is crucial for improving its nutritional value.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assemble a high-quality oat seed transcriptome for gene expression analysis.
• To identify temporal co-expression patterns and genetic control of gene expression during oat seed development.
• To provide tools for plant breeders to enhance oat seed composition.

Main Methods:

• De novo assembly of a comprehensive oat seed transcriptome using full-length mRNA sequencing.
• Quantification of gene expression across 22 diverse oat lines and six developmental time points.
• Identification of temporal co-expression (TCoE) and genetic co-expression (GCoE) sets, with heritability and metabolite correlation analyses.

Main Results:

• A high-quality oat seed transcriptome was successfully assembled.
• Twenty-two major temporal co-expression patterns were identified, with 17 showing high heritability in their genetic co-expression sets.
• Significant correlations were found between genetic co-expression patterns and mature seed metabolites, including avenanthramides and lipids.

Conclusions:

• The developed oat reference transcriptome facilitates detailed analysis of seed development.
• Genetic co-expression analysis reveals significant heritability and links gene expression to oat seed composition.
• This study provides a foundation for targeted breeding strategies to improve oat nutritional quality.