ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
This article is part of the Research TopicPlant Molecular Biology and Microbiome Engineering: Next-Generation Strategies for Multi-Stress ResilienceView all 3 articles
Genome-wide identification and functional validation of sterol C-22 desaturases and C-24 methyltransferases in Asparagus officinalis and Asparagus taliensis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming, China
- 2Institute of improvement and Utilization of characteristic resource plant, YNAU, kunming, China
- 3The Laboratory for Crop Production and Intelligent Agriculture of Yunnan Province, kunming, China
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Steroids are essential components of plant membranes and serve as precursors of brassinosteroids (BRs) and steroidal (SSs), which regulate growth, development and stress adaptation. Sterol-modifying enzymes, including C-22 desaturases (C22SDs) and C-24 methyltransferases (C24SMTs), act as key branch-point regulators of side-chain remodeling, yet their molecular roles in Asparagus remain poorly characterized. In this study, a functional genomics analysis of C22SD and C24SMT families was conducted in Asparagus officinalis and A. taliensis, integrating genome-wide identification, phylogenetic reconstruction, gene structure, conserved motif and cis-element analyses. Transcriptomics-based expression profiling revealed tissue-specific expression patterns, supporting functional divergence among gene family members. Structural modeling and molecular docking highlighted conservation of catalytic residues and predicted substrate interactions. To overcome transformation barriers in Asparagus, functional validation was performed in Neurospora crassa, where targeted disruption of erg5, erg6 or both impaired ergosterol biosynthesis, growth and membrane fluidity, while complementation with selected Asparagus genes restored these traits. The results catalog C22SD/C24SMT families and show heterologous complementation of Δerg5, Δerg6 and Δerg5/Δerg6 mutants in N. crassa, indicating catalytic competence in eukaryotic sterol pathway, in-planta roles remain to be established. By characterizing sterol side-chain remodeling enzymes, this study establishes a framework for understanding the potential roles of these enzymes in membrane stability, hormone biosynthesis and defense metabolite production, with implications for stress resilience and metabolic engineering. These findings highlight sterol remodeling as a potential target for developing stress-resilient crops.
Keywords: Sterol biosynthesis, sterol C-22 desaturase, Sterol C-24 methyltransferase, Asparagus officinalis, Asparagus taliensis, Functional Genomics, expression profiling, stress resilience
Received: 22 Aug 2025; Accepted: 30 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Brown, Li, Li, Liu and Mao. 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:
Zhengjie Liu, 2013045@ynau.edu.cn
Zichao Mao, zmao@ynau.edu.cn
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