Transcriptome Analysis of the Eggplant Fruits Overexpressing a Gene of Chlorogenic Acid Pathway

Chlorogenic acid is the primary phenolic acids present in Eggplant fruits. For the generation of chlorogenic acid in the eggplant hydroxycinnamoyl CoA-quinate transferase (SmHQT), is a central enzyme that catalyzes the reaction to the chlorogenic acid production. Although a precise function of SmHQT is not well defined in the eggplant fruit. In this study, the overexpression of SmHQT in the eggplant fruits flesh was studied using the agroinfiltration technique. Furthermore, to determine the differences at the genomic level RNA-seq analysis was performed, and its results showed that 415 genes of the phenylpropanoid pathway were upregulated in the transgenic fruit. Also, it was determined that the differentially expressed genes were dominantly related to phenylpropanoid pathway along with cell expansion, and cytokinin. The agroinfiltrated fruit exhibited more than twice the chlorogenic content in the normal fruit. Overall, the result provides new insight into the eggplant chlorogenic content increment at the molecular level and unseal the opportunities to design new strategies for the improvement of chlorogenic content as nutrition in eggplant.