Cgl2 Gene Involved in Cuticular Wax Synthesis in Cabbage

The aerial parts of most plants are covered with cuticular wax which is important for plants to avoid harmful factors. While the wax is an important part of the plant, there is still no cloning study on the wax synthesis gene of the alcohol-forming pathway in Brassica species. The team of Dongming Liu from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences aimed to study the target gene using a wax-deficient cabbage (Brassica oleracea) mutant, LD10GL.

The team used scanning electron microscopy to compare the leaves of the wild type and the mutant. Compared with wild type, wax crystals are severely reduced in both the adaxial and abaxial sides of leaves from the LD10GL mutant. Analysis revealed that the glossy trait of LD10GL is controlled by a single recessive gene, designated Bol013612 or Cgl2 (Cabbage Glossy 2). The gene is also homologous to Arabidopsis CER4, which encodes fatty acyl-coenzyme A reductase.

Sequencing identified a single nucleotide substitution that results in an insertion of six nucleotides in the Bol013612 gene in LD10GL. The phenotypic defect of LD10GL was confirmed by a functional complementation test with Arabidopsis mutant cer4.

These results indicate that wax crystals of cabbage mutant LD10GL are severely reduced and mutation of gene Bol013612 or Cgl2 causes a glossy phenotype in the LD10GL mutant.

For more information, read the article in BMC Plant Biology.