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Article|01 Feb 2021|OPEN
Study of micro-trichome (mict) reveals novel connections between transcriptional regulation of multicellular trichome development and specific metabolism in cucumber
Jian Pan1 , Leyu Zhang1 , Guanqun Chen2 , Haifan Wen1 , Yue Chen1 , Hui Du1 , Junlong Zhao1 , Huanle He1 , Hongli Lian1 , Huiming Chen3 , Jianxin Shi4 , Run Cai1,5 and Gang Wang1 , , Junsong Pan,1 ,
1School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
2School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
3Hunan Vegetable Research Institute, Hunan Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Changsha 410125, China
4Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic & Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
5State Key Laboratory of Vegetable Germplasm Innovation, Tianjin 300384, China
*Corresponding author. E-mail: wg770801@sjtu.edu.cn,jspan71@sjtu.edu.cn

Horticulture Research 8,
Article number: 21 (2021)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-020-00456-0
Views: 710

Received: 11 Aug 2020
Revised: 10 Oct 2020
Accepted: 20 Nov 2020
Published online: 01 Feb 2021

Abstract

Trichomes that cover the epidermis of aerial plant organs play multiple roles in plant protection. Compared with a unicellular trichome in model plants, the development mechanism of the multicellular trichome is largely unclear. Notably, variations in trichome development are often accompanied by defects in the biosynthesis of cuticle and secondary metabolites; however, major questions about the interactions between developmental differences in trichomes and defects in metabolic pathways remain unanswered. Here, we characterized the glabrous mutant mict/csgl1/cstbh via combined metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses to extend our limited knowledge regarding multicellular trichome development and metabolism in cucumber. Mict was found to be explicitly expressed within trichome cells. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that genes involved in flavonoid and cuticle metabolism are significantly downregulated in mict mutants. Further metabolomic analysis confirmed that flavonoids, lipids, and cuticle compositions are dramatically altered in mict mutants. Additional studies revealed that Mict regulates flavonoid, lipid, and cuticle biosynthesis by likely directly binding to downstream functional genes, such as CsTT4, CsFLS1, CsCER26, and CsMYB36. These findings suggest that specific metabolic pathways (e.g., flavonoids and cuticle components) are co-regulated by Mict and provide insights into transcriptional regulation mechanisms of multicellular trichome development and its specific metabolism in cucumber.