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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.

Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1638073

This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Stress Resistance: Unraveling the Mechanisms and Strategies for ResilienceView all 16 articles

Identification and expression analysis of cinnamyl CoA reductase (CCR) gene family and function of StCCR6 in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Provisionally accepted
Chong  DuChong Du1Yunzhu  CheYunzhu Che2Zengli  ZhangZengli Zhang2Fumeng  HeFumeng He2Xinqi  ZhangXinqi Zhang2Yujie  HanYujie Han2Zelin  YangZelin Yang2Jiaqi  WangJiaqi Wang2Tianshuai  QiTianshuai Qi2Ying  LanYing Lan3Yingnan  WangYingnan Wang2*Fenglan  LiFenglan Li2*
  • 1College of Life Sciences, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China, Harbin, China
  • 2College of Life Sciences, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China
  • 3Qiqihar Branch, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences,, Qiqihar, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR), a key rate-limiting enzyme in plant lignin biosynthesis, critically regulates plant growth, development, and abiotic stress responses. As one of the world's four major staple crops, potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is extensively cultivated due to its nutritional value and versatile applications, underscoring the importance of investigating the StCCR gene family and its expression patterns under abiotic stress. In this study, we identified 10 CCR genes from the Atlantic potato genome and conducted comprehensive analyses of their phylogenetic relationships, gene structures, species collinearity, cis-regulatory elements, and expression specificity. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) was used to silence StCCR6, resulting in altered lignin content and enhanced susceptibility to bacterial infection. Results revealed structural and functional divergences among StCCRs members. Tissue-specific expression profiling demonstrated higher transcript abundance in stems and leaves compared to roots. Notably, StCCRs exhibited differential expression patterns across multiple stress conditions, with Subfamily I genes showing consistent upregulation under various treatments, suggesting their potential as core candidates mediating stress-responsive lignification. Silencing of StCCR6 altered lignin content and cell wall structure in potato, and the oxidative damage was more serious after bacterial infection. These findings establish a foundation for elucidating the functional roles of StCCRs in potato growth regulation and stress adaptation mechanisms.

Keywords: Potato, gene family, CCR, abiotic stress, Gene Expression, VIGS

Received: 30 May 2025; Accepted: 18 Jul 2025.

Copyright: Ā© 2025 Du, Che, Zhang, He, Zhang, Han, Yang, Wang, Qi, Lan, Wang and Li. 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:
Yingnan Wang, College of Life Sciences, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China
Fenglan Li, College of Life Sciences, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, China

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