The underlying molecular conservation and diversification of dioecious flower and leaf buds provide insights into the development, dormancy breaking, flowering, and sex association of willows

Differential salt stress resistance in male and female Salix linearistipularis plants: insights from transcriptome profiling and the identification of the 4-hydroxy-tetrahydrodipicolinate synthase gene

MAIN CONCLUSION

Lysine plays an essential role in the growth differences between male and female S. linearistipularis plants under salt stress. Furthermore, SlDHDPS is identified as a vital gene contributing to the differences in saline-alkali tolerance between male and female plants of S. linearistipularis. Soil salinization is a significant problem that severely restricts agricultural production worldwide. High salinity and low nutrient concentrations consequently prevent the growth of most plant species. Salix linearistipularis is the only woody plant (shrub) naturally distributed in the saline-alkali lands of the Songnen Plain in Northeast China, and it is one of the few plants capable of thriving in soils with extremely high salt and alkaline pH (>9.0) levels. However, insufficient attention has been given to the interplay between salt and nitrogen in the growth and development of S. linearistipularis. Here, the male and female plants of S. linearistipularis were subjected to salt stress with nitrogen-starvation or nitrogen-supplement treatments, and it was found that nitrogen significantly affects the difference in salt tolerance between male and female plants, with nitrogen-starvation significantly enhancing the salt stress tolerance of female plants compared to male plants. Transcriptional analyses showed 66 differentially expressed nitrogen-responsive genes in female and male roots, with most of them showing sexual differences in expression patterns under salinity stress. RNA-seq and RT-qPCR analysis demonstrated that six genes had an opposite salt-induced expression pattern in female and male roots. The expression of the 4-hydroxy-tetrahydrodipicolinate synthase encoding gene (SlDHDPS) in female roots was higher than that in male roots. Further treatment with exogenous lysine could significantly alleviate the inhibitory effect of salt stress on the growth of female and male plants. These results indicate that the SlDHDPS in the nitrogen metabolism pathway is involved in the resistance of S. linearistipularis to salt stress, which lays a foundation for further exploring the mechanism of nitrogen on salt tolerance of S. linearistipularis, and has a significant reference value for saline-alkali land management and sustainable agricultural development.

Gender Discrimination of Flower Buds of Mature Populus tomentosa by HPLC Fingerprint Combined with Chemometrics

A high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) was used to establish the HPLC fingerprint. Chemometrics methods were used to discriminate against the gender of flower buds of Populus tomentosa based on areas of common peaks calibrated with the HPLC fingerprint. The score plot of principal component analysis (PCA) showed a clear grouping trend (R²X, 0.753; Q², 0.564) between female and male samples. Two groups were also well discriminated with orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) (R²X, 0.741; R²Y, 0.980; Q², 0.970). As the hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) heatmap showed, all samples were separated into two groups. Four compounds were screened out by S-plot and variable importance in projection (VIP > 1.0). Two of them were identified as siebolside B and tremulacin. This study demonstrated that HPLC fingerprints combined with chemometrics can be applied to discriminate against dioecious plants and screen differences, providing a reference for identifying the gender of dioecious plants.