Eragrostis curvula (Schrad.) Nees is a C4 perennial grass used as forage in semiarid regions, and its quality varies among cultivars. Given the limited variation in total lignin content among genotypes, cell wall phenolic composition may be a more relevant source of variation. This study characterized the cell wall phenolic profile and analyzed the lignin biosynthetic genes EcCSE-I, EcCSE-II, and EcF5H in three cultivars: the heptaploid Don Pablo and the tetraploids Morpa and Tanganyika. Phenolic compounds released by alkaline nitrobenzene oxidation and alkaline hydrolysis were quantified by HPLC, and transcript levels were measured by qPCR. Don Pablo showed the highest yield of guaiacyl-type oxidation products and the lowest S:G ratio, whereas Morpa showed the lowest guaiacyl and ferulic acid values. The cultivar Tanganyika accumulated the most p-coumaric acid and displayed the highest EcF5H expression. Sequencing of EcCSE-I, EcCSE-II and EcF5H orthologs in six accessions spanning three ploidy levels resolved EcCSE-I into two divergent sequence lineages that do not follow ploidy level, differing at up to 19 of 341 residues while retaining all residues required for esterase activity. The observed concordance between transcript abundance and cell wall phenolic composition identifies EcCSE-I and EcF5H as preliminary candidate genes in this species.
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Pasten et al. (2026) studied this question.
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