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Agronomy
Volume 16
Issue 10
10.3390/agronomy16100999
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Stop and Smell the Grasses: Evolution of Scent Producing Genus Cymbopogon

by
Luciano Carlos da Maia
1,*,
Antonio Costa de Oliveira
1,
Camila Pegoraro
1,
Leticia Carvalho Benitez
2,
Cesar Valmor Rombaldi
3,
Luis Willian Pacheco Arge
4,
Gabriel Brandão das Chagas
1 and
Eugenia Jacira Bolacel Braga
5
1
Plant Genomics and Breeding Center, Department of Plant Sciences, Faculty of Agronomy “Eliseu Maciel”, Federal University of Pelotas, Capão do Leão 96160-000, RS, Brazil
2
Academic Unit of Exact Sciences and Nature, Federal University of Campina Grande, Cajazeiras Campus, Cajazeiras 58900-000, PB, Brazil
3
Department of Agroindustrial Science and Technology, Faculty of Agronomy “Eliseu Maciel”, Federal University of Pelotas, Capão do Leão 96160-000, RS, Brazil
4
Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 5518-60226, USA
5
Department of Botany, Biology Institute, Plant Physiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas 96010-900, RS, Brazil
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agronomy 2026, 16(10), 999; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16100999 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 29 March 2026 / Revised: 5 May 2026 / Accepted: 11 May 2026 / Published: 19 May 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evolutionary Mechanisms and Molecular Regulatory Networks of Plant Breeding Systems)
Versions Notes

Abstract

The genus Cymbopogon comprises neocosmopolitan grasses widely used as medicinal plants and in the perfume, pharmaceutical and herbal product industries. Despite their economic relevance, these species are still considered orphan crops, with limited phytotechnical, genomic and evolutionary studies within the Poaceae family. In this study, we investigated the evolutionary relationships of Cymbopogon flexuosus and Cymbopogon winterianus, with a focus on differences in gene expression associated with the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites. De novo transcriptome assembly yielded 25,576 transcripts in C. flexuosus and 42,250 in C. winterianus. A total of 5318 and 8631 more informative differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) were identified in each mapping, among which 76 and 94 were associated with secondary metabolism pathways. When mapping the libraries against related species, the highest percentages of mapped reads per transcriptome and per gene (depth) were observed in Andropogon gerardi, Sorghum bicolor, Saccharum officinarum, Miscanthus sinensis, Miscanthus lutarioriparius and Zea mays. These results indicate A. gerardi, S. bicolor and Z. mays as the most promising genomic models for future studies within the genus Cymbopogon. Comparison of the expression of transcripts that are homologous to the precursor enzymes of terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids and other secondary metabolites revealed a complex and non-linear interaction between the metabolic pathways in each species and it was not possible to predict the predominance of greater expression of a class of metabolites on a given species.
Keywords: phytochemistry; genome; RNAseq; citronella; lemongrass phytochemistry; genome; RNAseq; citronella; lemongrass

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MDPI and ACS Style

Maia, L.C.d.; Oliveira, A.C.d.; Pegoraro, C.; Benitez, L.C.; Rombaldi, C.V.; Arge, L.W.P.; das Chagas, G.B.; Braga, E.J.B. Stop and Smell the Grasses: Evolution of Scent Producing Genus Cymbopogon. Agronomy 2026, 16, 999. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16100999

AMA Style

Maia LCd, Oliveira ACd, Pegoraro C, Benitez LC, Rombaldi CV, Arge LWP, das Chagas GB, Braga EJB. Stop and Smell the Grasses: Evolution of Scent Producing Genus Cymbopogon. Agronomy. 2026; 16(10):999. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16100999

Chicago/Turabian Style

Maia, Luciano Carlos da, Antonio Costa de Oliveira, Camila Pegoraro, Leticia Carvalho Benitez, Cesar Valmor Rombaldi, Luis Willian Pacheco Arge, Gabriel Brandão das Chagas, and Eugenia Jacira Bolacel Braga. 2026. "Stop and Smell the Grasses: Evolution of Scent Producing Genus Cymbopogon" Agronomy 16, no. 10: 999. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16100999

APA Style

Maia, L. C. d., Oliveira, A. C. d., Pegoraro, C., Benitez, L. C., Rombaldi, C. V., Arge, L. W. P., das Chagas, G. B., & Braga, E. J. B. (2026). Stop and Smell the Grasses: Evolution of Scent Producing Genus Cymbopogon. Agronomy, 16(10), 999. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16100999

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