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Garden asparagus ( Asparagus officinalis  L.) is a commercially important crop species utilized for its excellent source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. However, after harvest the tissue hardens and its quality rapidly deteriorates because spear cell walls become rigidified due to lignification and substantial increases in heteroxylan content. This latter observation prompted us to investigate the  in vitro  xylan xylosyltransferase (XylT) activity in asparagus. The current model system for studying heteroxylan biosynthesis,  Arabidopsis , whilst a powerful genetic system, displays relatively low xylan XylT activity in  in vitro  microsomal preparations compared with garden asparagus therefore hampering our ability to study the molecular mechanism(s) of heteroxylan assembly. Here, we analyzed physiological and biochemical changes of garden asparagus spears stored at 4 °C after harvest and detected a high level of xylan XylT activity that accounts for this increased heteroxylan. The xylan XylT catalytic activity is at least thirteen-fold higher than that reported for previously published species, including  Arabidopsis  and grasses. A biochemical assay was optimized and up to seven successive Xyl residues were incorporated to extend the xylotetraose (Xyl 4 ) acceptor backbone. To further elucidate the xylan biosynthesis mechanism, we used RNA-seq to generate an  Asparagus  reference transcriptome and identified five putative xylan biosynthetic genes ( AoIRX9 ,  AoIRX9-L ,  AoIRX10 ,  AoIRX14_A ,  AoIRX14_B ) with  AoIRX9  having an expression profile that is distinct from the other genes. We propose that  Asparagus  provides an ideal biochemical system to investigate the biochemical aspects of heteroxylan biosynthesis and also offers the additional benefit of being able to study the lignification process during plant stem maturation.

Asparagus Spears as a Model to Study Heteroxylan Biosynthesis during Secondary Wall Development