Identification of Putative Cell Wall Synthesis Genes in Betula pendula

Cellulose is an essential structural component of the plant cell wall and is an important resource for the production of paper, textiles, bioplastics and other biomaterials. The synthesis of cellulose is among the most important but poorly understood biochemical processes, which is precisely regulated by internal and external cues. Here we identified 46 gene models in 7 gene families which encoding cellulose synthase and related enzymes of Betula pendula, and the transcript abundance of these genes in xylem, root, leaf and flower tissues also be determined. Based on these RNA-seq data, we have identified 8 genes that most likely participate in cell wall synthesis. In parallel, a gene co-expression network was also constructed based on transcriptome sequencing. FundingThis work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number 31870659, The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, grant number 2572019CG08 funded this research and Heilongjiang Touyan Innovation Team Program (Tree Genetics and Breeding Innovation Team). Conflicts of interest / Competing interestsThe authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Consent to participateNot applicable. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Availability of data and materialAll data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article. Code availabilityNot applicable. Authors contributionsAll authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Song Chen. Conceived and supervised were performed by Xiyang Zhao and Su Chen.