Transcriptomic and metabolomic changes in postharvest sugarbeet roots reveal widespread metabolic changes in storage and identify genes potentially responsible for respiratory sucrose loss

Karen K. Fugate¹, John D. Eide¹, Abb as M. Lafta², Muhammad Massub Tehseen³, Chenggen Chu¹, Mohamed F. R. Khan^2,4
and Fernando L. Finger⁵.

¹Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service,
Fargo, ND, USA,²Department of Plant Pathology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA, ³Department
of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA, ⁴University of Minnesota Extension Service,
St. Paul, MN, USA, ⁵Departamento de Agronomia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Brazil

Corresponding Author(s): Karen K. Fugate

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Abstract

Endogenous metabolism is primarily responsible for
losses in sucrose content and processing quality in postharvest
sugarbeet roots. The genes responsible for this
metabolism and the transcriptional changes that regulate
it, however, are largely unknown. To identify genes and
metabolic pathways that participate in postharvest sugarbeet
root metabolism and the transcriptional changes that
contribute to their regulation, transcriptomic and metabolomic
profiles were generated for sugarbeet roots at harvest
and after 12, 40 and 120 d storage at 5 and 12°C and
gene expression and metabolite concentration changes
related to storage duration or temperature were identified.
During storage, 8656 genes, or 34% of all expressed
genes, and 225 metabolites, equivalent to 59% of detected
metabolites, were altered in expression or concentration,
indicating extensive transcriptional and metabolic
changes in stored roots. These genes and metabolites contributed
to a wide range of cellular and molecular functions,
with carbohydrate metabolism being the function
to which the greatest number of genes and metabolites
classified. Because respiration has a central role in postharvest
metabolism and is largely responsible for sucrose
loss in sugarbeet roots, genes and metabolites involved in
and correlated to respiration were identified. Seventy-five
genes participating in respiration were differentially expressed
during storage, including two bidirectional sugar
transporter SWEET17 genes that highly correlated with
respiration rate. Weighted gene co-expression network
analysis identified 1896 additional genes that positively
correlated with respiration rate and predicted a pyruvate
kinase gene to be a central regulator or biomarker for respiration
rate. Overall, these results reveal the extensive
and diverse physiological and metabolic changes that
occur in stored sugarbeet roots and identify genes with
potential roles

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Abstract