Transcriptome sequencing of Festulolium accessions under salt stress

Transcriptome Analysis of the Salt-Treated Actinidia deliciosa (A. Chev.) C. F. Liang and A. R. Ferguson Plantlets

The area of saline land in the world is quite large, and there is broad room for its development and usage. 'Xuxiang' is an Actinidia deliciosa variety that is tolerant to salt and can be planted in an area of light-saline land, and has good comprehensive characteristics and high economic value. However, the molecular mechanism of salt tolerance is unknown at present. To understand the molecular mechanism of salt tolerance, the leaves of A. deliciosa 'Xuxiang' were used as explants to establish a sterile tissue culture system, and plantlets were obtained using this system. One percent concentration (w/v) of sodium chloride (NaCl) was employed to treat the young plantlets cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, then RNA-seq was used for transcriptome analysis. The results showed that the genes related to salt stress in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway and the anabolism of trehalose and maltose pathways were up-regulated; however, those genes in the plant hormone signal transduction and metabolic pathways of starch, sucrose, glucose, and fructose were down-regulated after salt treatment. The expression levels of ten genes that were up-regulated and down-regulated in these pathways were confirmed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis. The salt tolerance of A. deliciosa might be related to the expression level changes in the genes in the pathways of plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and starch, sucrose, glucose, and fructose metabolism. The increased expression levels of the genes encoding alpha-trehalose-phosphate synthase, trehalose-phosphatase, alpha-amylase, beta-amylase, feruloyl-CoA 6-hydroxylase, ferulate 5-hydroxylase, and coniferyl-alcohol glucosyl transferase might be vital to the salt stress response of the young A. deliciosa plants.

Combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis reveals the potential mechanism of seed germination and young seedling growth in Tamarix hispida

Background

Seed germination is a series of ordered physiological and morphogenetic processes and a critical stage in plant life cycle. Tamarix hispida is one of the most salt-tolerant plant species; however, its seed germination has not been analysed using combined transcriptomics and metabolomics.

Results

Transcriptomic sequencing and widely targeted metabolomics were used to detect the transcriptional metabolic profiles of T. hispida at different stages of seed germination and young seedling growth. Transcriptomics showed that 46,538 genes were significantly altered throughout the studied development period. Enrichment study revealed that plant hormones, such as auxin, ABA, JA and SA played differential roles at varying stages of seed germination and post-germination. Metabolomics detected 1022 metabolites, with flavonoids accounting for the highest proportion of differential metabolites. Combined analysis indicated that flavonoid biosynthesis in young seedling growth, such as rhoifolin and quercetin, may improve the plant’s adaptative ability to extreme desert environments.

Conclusions

The differential regulation of plant hormones and the accumulation of flavonoids may be important for the seed germination survival of T. hispida in response to salt or arid deserts. This study enhanced the understanding of the overall mechanism in seed germination and post-germination. The results provide guidance for the ecological value and young seedling growth of T. hispida.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-022-08341-x.

Retracted Article: Investigation of yellow horn (Xanthoceras sorbifolia Bunge) transcriptome in response to different abiotic stresses: a comparative RNA-Seq study

Yellow horn (Xanthoceras sorbifolia Bunge) is a well-known oil-rich seed shrub which can grow well in barren and arid environments in the northern part of China. Yellow horn has received worldwide attention because of its excellent economic and environmental value. However, because of its limited genetic data, little information can be found regarding the molecular defense mechanisms of yellow horn exposed to various abiotic stresses. In view of this, the current study aims to investigate the impact of different abiotic stresses (i.e. NaCl, ABA and low temperature) on the transcriptome of yellow horn using RNA-Seq. Based on the transcriptome sequencing data, approximately 27% to 45% of stress-responsive genes were found highly expressed after stress treatment for 24 h. In addition, these genes were found to be still expressed after stress treatment for 48 h. However, many additional genes were stress-regulated after 48 h treatment compared with the 24 h treatment. GO enrichment analysis revealed that the expression patterns of the stress-responsive, type-specific terms were generally down-regulated. Most shared GO terms were primarily involved in protein folding, unfolding protein binding, protein transport and protein modification. Further, transcription factors (TFs), such as ERFs, bHLH, GRAS and NAC, were found to be enriched only in the low temperature treatment group, particularly the ERF TFs families. These combined results suggested that yellow horn may have developed specific molecular defense systems against diverse abiotic stresses.