ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional and Applied Plant Genomics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1597668
Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of Soybean GH9 Endo-1,4-β-Glucanases
Provisionally accepted
Weimin Zhan1,2
Huijuan Huang1,2Zaipan Cai1,2Zhenwei Zhao1,2Xuefu Lin1,2Yize Peng1,2
Zhicheng Dong1,2Di Qin1,2,3*
Li Jiang1,2*- 1Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design, Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Editing, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
- 3Institute of Medical Plant Physiology and Ecology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
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Cellulases are a crucial class of enzymes involved in cellulose synthesis and metabolism, significantly contributing to plant growth, development, and organ abscission. The role of Glycosyl hydrolase family 9 (GH9), a major gene family encoding cellulase, remains poorly elucidated in soybean. In this experiment, we identified 43 non-redundant GmGH9 genes in soybean through systematic genome-wide analysis. The physicochemical properties of GmGH9 proteins exhibit variability. Phylogenetic investigations revealed that class B constitutes the predominant evolutionary branch. The GmGH9B/C members display complex splicing patterns. GmGH9As contain typical transmembrane structural domains, while GmGH9Cs uniquely includes the carbohydrate-binding module 49 (CBM49) and signal peptide. Furthermore, we identified 13 distinct types of functional motifs, with light-responsive elements being predominant. Expression profiling of the GmGH9s in soybean revealed spatiotemporal and stress-regulated dynamics across organs, ethylene treatments, and photoperiodic conditions, especially for GmGH9A9 and GmGH9B19. Multispecies collinearity analysis of GH9 genes suggested that GmGH9A2 and GmGH9C4 exhibited greater conservation in pea, tomato, and soybean, which are distinguished by fruit abscission. Additional correlations between the haplotypes of GmGH9A2 and GmGH9C4 and yield-related traits indicated that soybean experienced selected pressure during domestication, resulting in a reduction in their genetic diversity.
Keywords: Soybean, abscission cellulase, haplotype analysis, glycosyl hydrolase 9, Ethylene response
Received: 31 Mar 2025; Accepted: 20 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhan, Huang, Cai, Zhao, Lin, Peng, Dong, Qin and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Di Qin, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design, Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
Li Jiang, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Plant Adaptation and Molecular Design, Innovative Center of Molecular Genetics and Evolution, School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
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