Transcriptome analysis revealed the potential molecular mechanism of style bending movement in passion fruit (Passiflora Edulis Sims)

TL;DR

This study explores how passion fruit styles bend during flowering, revealing molecular mechanisms involving heat stress and lignin accumulation that affect pollination and fruit yield.

Contribution

The study identifies specific genes and pathways involved in style bending, linking heat stress, lignin biosynthesis, and hormone regulation in passion fruit.

Findings

Early style bending is associated with heat shock and DnaJ family proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum pathway.

Lignin accumulation increases significantly during style bending, correlating with reduced S-shaped curvature.

Hormone metabolism, particularly ABA and jasmonic acid, shows distinct accumulation patterns during style development.

Abstract

Passion fruit has a difficult natural fruiting process and low yield due to its approach herkogamy. Understanding the molecular mechanism of passion fruit style bending is crucial as it enhances pollination efficiency by optimizing stigma-anther alignment, overcoming herkogamy and improving fruit yield. In this study, we used the purple passion fruit variety ‘Tainong 1’ as experimental material. We observed that its style bends into an “S”-shape after flowering. As development progresses, the degree of this S-shaped curvature gradually weakens. Simultaneously, the style also exhibits a spatial bending from top to bottom during this process. In order to identify the genes specifically induced during the style bending process, transcriptome analysis was conducted on styles at T1 (flowering), T2 (30 min post-flowering), and T5 (120 min post-flowering). 226 DEGs were identified to be specifically expressed in the T1 to T2 stages, mainly enriched in the “Protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum” pathway, involving heat shock proteins and DnaJ family proteins, suggesting that heat stress response is involved in early style movement regulation. The enriched 18 DEGs were all heat shock protein family proteins and DnaJ family proteins, which may be due to the stress response of the style to environmental heat stimulation. At the same time, 1,080 DEGs were specifically expressed in the T2 to T5 stages, mainly enriched in the “Phenylpropanoid biosynthesis” pathway and involved in the lignin biosynthesis pathway. Physiological testing confirmed that as the S-shaped of the style weakens, lignin accumulates significantly, increasing by 60% from T1 to T2 and by 43% from T2 to T5, which is consistent with the trend of transcriptome data. In addition, differential expression of hormone metabolism related genes (abscisic acid, brassino steroids, jasmonic acid, and gibberellin pathways) was observed. Endogenous hormone quantification further confirmed hormonal regulation of style bending, revealing distinct accumulation patterns: ABA showed a biphasic trend with an initial 30% increase (T1 to T2) followed by a 9% rise (T2 to T5), while jasmonic acid exhibited a sharper 30% (T1 to T2) to 22% (T2 to T5) escalation. In summary, our results indicate that lignin accumulation enhances the mechanical strength of the style and reduces its inherent S-shaped bending. Thermal stimulation and hormone synthesis metabolism may also play a role in the process of style bending, but further research is needed to determine the specific mechanisms by which the response is regulated.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-025-07431-8.

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