Wang Hongyan, Chen Yuan, Liu Lanlan, Guo Fengxia, Liang Wei, Dong Linlin, Dong Pengbin, Cheng Jiali, Chen Yongzhong
College of Agronomy, College of Life Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, China.
College of Forestry Engineering, Guangxi Eco-engineering Vocational and Technical College, Nanning, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2024 Oct 30;15:1454569. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1454569. eCollection 2024.
(Campanulaceae) is a traditional herbal plant that is widely used in China, and the drought stress during the seedling stage directly affects the quality, ultimately impacting its yield. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the drought resistance of . seedlings remain unclear.
Herein, we conducted extensive comparative transcriptome and physiological studies on two distinct cultivar (G1 and W1) seedlings subjected to a 4-day drought treatment.
Our findings revealed that cultivar G1 exhibited enhanced retention of proline and chlorophyll, alongside a marked elevation in peroxidase activity, coupled with diminished levels of malondialdehyde and reduced leaf relative electrolyte leakage compared with cultivar W1. This suggested that cultivar G1 had relatively higher protective enzyme activity and ROS quenching capacity. We discerned a total of 21,535 expressed genes and identified 4,192 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Our analysis revealed that 1,764 DEGs unique to G1 underwent thorough annotation and functional categorization utilizing diverse databases. Under drought conditions, the DEGs in G1 were predominantly linked to starch and sucrose metabolic pathways, plant hormone signaling, and glutathione metabolism. Notably, the drought-responsive genes in G1 were heavily implicated in hormonal modulation, such as ABA receptor3-like gene (), regulation by transcription factors (, , ), and orchestration of drought-responsive gene expression. These results suggest that cultivar G1 possesses stronger stress tolerance and can better adapt to drought growing conditions. The congruence between qRT-PCR validation and RNA-seq data for 15 DEGs further substantiated our findings.
Our research provides novel insights into the physiological adaptations of to arid conditions and lays the groundwork for the development of new, drought-tolerant cultivars.
桔梗科植物是一种在中国广泛使用的传统草药植物，其苗期的干旱胁迫直接影响品质，最终影响产量。然而，桔梗科植物幼苗抗旱性的分子机制仍不清楚。
在此，我们对两个不同的桔梗品种（G1和W1）的幼苗进行了为期4天的干旱处理，并开展了广泛的比较转录组和生理研究。
我们的研究结果表明，与W1品种相比，G1品种脯氨酸和叶绿素的保留能力增强，过氧化物酶活性显著提高，丙二醛水平降低，叶片相对电解质渗漏减少。这表明G1品种具有相对较高的保护酶活性和活性氧淬灭能力。我们通过RNA测序（RNA-seq）共识别出21,535个表达基因，并鉴定出4,192个差异表达基因（DEG）。我们的分析显示，利用各种数据库对G1特有的1,764个DEG进行了全面注释和功能分类。在干旱条件下，G1中的DEG主要与淀粉和蔗糖代谢途径、植物激素信号传导和谷胱甘肽代谢有关。值得注意的是，G1中的干旱响应基因与激素调节密切相关，如ABA受体3样基因（）、转录因子（、、）的调控以及干旱响应基因表达的编排。这些结果表明，G1品种具有更强的胁迫耐受性，能够更好地适应干旱生长条件。15个DEG的qRT-PCR验证与RNA-seq数据之间的一致性进一步证实了我们的发现。
我们的研究为桔梗科植物对干旱条件的生理适应提供了新的见解，并为开发新的耐旱桔梗品种奠定了基础。
