Yang Fang, Lv Guanghui
School of Ecology and Environment, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, China.
Key Laboratory of Oasis Ecology, Ministry of Education, Urumqi 830017, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 May 6;26(9):4403. doi: 10.3390/ijms26094403.
Desert shrubs play an important role in the stability of arid and fragile desert ecosystems. However, despite their significant ecological importance, limited research has been performed on shrub drought tolerance strategies at the morphological, physiological, and molecular levels. Therefore, this study focused on the typical desert shrub, , and analyzed its morphology, physiology, and protein expression under two different habitats: moist low-salt and arid low-salt. The results indicate that drought stress inhibited the growth of , leading to significant reductions in its plant height, base diameter, and crown width by 14.93%, 49.57%, and 48.49%, respectively. Drought stress triggered a 30% decline in stomatal conductance, whereas homeostasis was observed in net photosynthesis, intercellular CO₂, and transpiration. The soluble sugar content significantly increased by 13.43%, while the starch, soluble protein, and proline content significantly decreased by 20.32%, 10.67%, and 55.61%, respectively. In addition, under drought stress, membrane peroxidation products, reactive oxygen species metabolites, and antioxidant enzyme activities significantly increased. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis revealed 40 proteins that were significantly enriched in the photosynthesis and oxidative phosphorylation pathways through KEGG enrichment analysis. In addition, maintains photosynthetic homeostasis by enhancing PSII repair (PsbE, PsbL, PsbH) and electron transfer chain efficiency (PetD, nad 2, nad 9), thereby compensating for the insufficient carbon dioxide supply caused by stomatal limitation. This study integrated multidimensional data from morphology, physiology, and proteomics to reveal that drives a coupled network of photosynthesis, antioxidant, and carbon metabolism through chloroplast translation reprogramming. It maintains photosynthetic homeostasis and osmotic balance under a 30% decrease in stomatal conductance, elucidating the cross-scale regulatory strategy of desert shrubs adapting to extreme drought.
沙漠灌木在干旱脆弱的沙漠生态系统稳定性中发挥着重要作用。然而，尽管它们具有重要的生态意义，但在形态、生理和分子水平上对灌木耐旱策略的研究仍然有限。因此，本研究聚焦于典型的沙漠灌木[此处原文缺失灌木名称]，并分析了其在两种不同生境（湿润低盐和干旱低盐）下的形态、生理和蛋白质表达。结果表明，干旱胁迫抑制了[此处原文缺失灌木名称]的生长，导致其株高、基径和冠幅分别显著降低了14.93%、49.57%和48.49%。干旱胁迫使气孔导度下降了30%，而净光合作用、细胞间二氧化碳和蒸腾作用保持稳态。可溶性糖含量显著增加了13.43%，而淀粉、可溶性蛋白质和脯氨酸含量分别显著降低了20.32%、10.67%和55.61%。此外，在干旱胁迫下，膜脂过氧化产物、活性氧代谢物和抗氧化酶活性显著增加。加权基因共表达网络分析通过KEGG富集分析揭示了40种在光合作用和氧化磷酸化途径中显著富集的蛋白质。此外，[此处原文缺失灌木名称]通过增强PSII修复（PsbE、PsbL、PsbH）和电子传递链效率（PetD、nad 2、nad 9）来维持光合稳态，从而弥补气孔限制导致的二氧化碳供应不足。本研究整合了来自形态、生理和蛋白质组学的多维数据，揭示了[此处原文缺失灌木名称]通过叶绿体翻译重编程驱动光合作用、抗氧化和碳代谢的耦合网络。在气孔导度下降30%的情况下，它维持光合稳态和渗透平衡，阐明了沙漠灌木适应极端干旱的跨尺度调控策略。
