Telomere-to-telomere genome assembly and multiomics analyses illustrate the high accumulation of quercetin glucosides in tetraploid Descurainia sophia
Weifeng Wu1,2,† , Jianyong Wang2,3,† , Chengcheng Cai4,† , Xiaoyu Song5,† , Hua Li2,3 , Tao Zhang2,3 , Meixin Xiong2,3 , Ying Wang6 , Jie Zhang6 , Bingbing Li7 , Lei Zhang4 and Feng Li7 , Mingkun Huang2 , Wei Li5 , Feng Cheng4, , Danyu Kong1,2, , Yi Liu,2,3,
1Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Resources Innovation and Genetic Improvement, Lushan Botanical Garden, Jiangxi Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiujiang 332900, Jiangxi, China 2Lushan Botanical Garden, Jiangxi Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiujiang 332900, Jiangxi, China 3Jiangxi Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Chinese Materia Medica Resources, Lushan Botanical Garden, Jiangxi Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiujiang 332900, Jiangxi, China 4State Key Laboratory of Vegetable Biobreeding, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Horticultural Crops of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 12 Zhongguancun South Street, 100081 Beijing, China 5Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 518120 Shenzhen, China 6Institute of Biotechnology and Nuclear Technology Research, Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610061, Sichuan, China 7Bellagen Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Jinan 250307, Shandong, China *Corresponding author. E-mail: chengfeng@caas.cn,kongdy@lsbg.cn,liuy@lsbg.cn †Weifeng Wu,Jianyong Wang,Chengcheng Cai,Xiaoyu Song contributed equally to the study.
Received: 27 May 2025 Accepted: 27 Nov 2025 Published online: 03 Dec 2025
Abstract
Quercetin glucosides are important phytopharmaceutical metabolites in Descurainia sophia seeds, which are widely used in traditional herbal medicine. However, the key genes involved in quercetin glucoside biosynthesis in D. sophia have not been characterized. Herein, we present the telomere-to-telomere genomes of a tetraploid D. sophia, which accumulates high levels of quercetin glucoside, and a diploid D. sophia, which accumulates only trace amounts. Multiomics analyses and uridine diphosphate glucosyltransferase (UGT) enzyme assays revealed that the gene duplication and functional evolution of Dscd6AG01520, an UGT gene, led to high quercetin-3-O-β-d-glucoside and quercetin-3,7-O-β-d-diglucoside accumulation in tetraploid D. sophia seeds. Further UGT enzyme assays with the point mutations of Dscd6AG01520 showed that S213 was a critical amino acid for the enzymatic activity of Dscd6AG01520. In addition, we found that diploid D. sophia evolved from an ancestral crucifer karyotype through chromosome fusion and rearrangement. Collectively, our findings illuminate the mechanism of high quercetin glucoside accumulation in tetraploid D. sophia, clarify the origin of the diploid D. sophia genome, and provide valuable genomic resources for comparative genomics and research into polyploid evolution.
, Danyu Kong1,2 ,
