ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1678383
This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Molecular Biology and Microbiome Engineering: Next-Generation Strategies for Multi-Stress ResilienceView all articles
Comprehensive analysis of the Caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene family in kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) and their expression characteristics in response to salinity stress
Provisionally accepted
- Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China
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Caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT) catalyzes the penultimate methylation in monolignol biosynthesis, controlling lignin composition and abiotic-stress tolerance. Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.), a fast bast-fiber crop rich in lignin, is valued for its mechanical strength and resilience to salinity. However, the COMT gene family has not yet been systematically characterized in this species. Here, 81 HcCOMT genes were identified through genome-wide analysis of kenaf. Phylogenetic reconstruction with COMTs from Arabidopsis thaliana and Gossypium hirsutum resolved 10 distinct clades. Synteny analysis revealed 2 collinear blocks with Arabidopsis and 14 with cotton, and intraspecific duplication events indicated recent lineage-specific expansion. Promoter analysis identified numerous cis-elements responsive to light, phytohormones and abiotic stress, suggesting complex transcriptional regulation. Transcriptome mining pronounced tissue specificity and stress-responsive expression of 6 HcCOMT candidates for further analysis. qRT-PCR confirmed these patterns in root, stem and leaf tissues under 200 mM NaCl: HcCOMT28 and HcCOMT29 were repressed in the leaf, whereas HcCOMT11, HcCOMT12, HcCOMT13, and HcCOMT17 were up-regulated, consistent with altered lignin deposition patterns. Our findings provide a comprehensive genomic resource delineating the structure, evolution, and salt-responsive expression of the kenaf COMT family, and establish a foundation for elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying lignin-mediated salt tolerance and for breeding elite kenaf cultivars with tailored fiber properties.
Keywords: Kenaf, COMT, Lignin synthesis, salt stress, Expression pattern
Received: 02 Aug 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Liu, Lin, Huang, Chen, Fang and Niu. 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: Xiaoping Niu, xpniu0613@126.com
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