ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Breeding
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1665475
This article is part of the Research TopicFrom Genomics to Genome Editing: Crop Improvement Innovations for Farmers WorldwideView all 7 articles
Combined Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analysis of Phenylpropanoid Biosynthesis in the Mechanism of Leaf Angle Formation in Sorghum
Provisionally accepted
Jinhong Li1
Yiwei Wang1,2Yuche Zhao1,2Yanpeng Zhang1,2Kuangzheng Qu1Zhenxing Zhu1Chunyu Wang1Zhenjun Li1Ling Cong1Shuang Gang2,3*
Xiaochun Lu1*- 1Liaoning Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenyang, China
- 2School of Life Science and Engineering, Shenyang University,, Shenyang, China
- 3Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration of Regional Polluted Environment, Ministry of Education, Shenyang University, Shenyang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Leaf angle is a crucial morphological trait for improving crop architecture and facilitating high-density planting. This study aims to explore the mechanism underlying leaf angle formation in sorghum. We used the el1 mutant, generated through ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenesis in our laboratory, to conduct a comprehensive analysis, including phenotypic, cytological, and integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic studies. At the S3 stage, el1 leaves exhibited shrinkage, and their leaf angles were significantly smaller compared to those of the wild type (WT). Cytological analyses revealed that at the S1 stage, the auricles of el1 had larger cell sizes and fewer cells than those of the WT. Metabolomic analysis based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) identified 19 significantly differentiated metabolites, with 10 upregulated and 9 downregulated. Transcriptomics KEGG analysis revealed 858 upregulated and 533 downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Integrated analysis highlighted that 12 DEGs were associated with trans-5-O-(p-coumaroyl)shikimate in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, with 11 positively correlated and one negatively correlated DEG. Additionally, 43 DEGs were linked to coniferyl alcohol, with 35 positively correlated and 8 negatively correlated in el1 compared to WT. This study establishes a theoretical foundation for understanding the molecular mechanisms by which phenylpropanoid biosynthesis influences leaf angle formation in sorghum and offers a basis for optimizing plant architecture to enable high-density planting.
Keywords: Sorghum bicolor, leaf angle, Transcriptomics, Metabonomics, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis
Received: 14 Jul 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Wang, Zhao, Zhang, Qu, Zhu, Wang, Li, Cong, Gang and Lu. 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:
Shuang Gang, gangshuang@syu.edu.cn
Xiaochun Lu, luxiaochun2000@126.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.