Identifying water stress-response mechanisms in citrus by in silico transcriptome analysis

Abstract

Water deficit is one of the most critical environmental stresses to which plants are submitted during their life cycle. The evolutionary and economic performance of the plant is affected directly by reducing its survival in the natural environment and its productivity in agriculture. Plants respond to water stress with biochemical and physiological modifications that may be involved in tolerance or adaptation mechanisms. A great number of genes have been identified as transcriptionally regulated for water deficit. EST sequencing projects provide a significant contribution to the discovery of expressed genes. The identification and determination of gene expression patterns is important not only to understand the molecular bases of plant responses but also to improve water stress tolerance. In our citrus transcriptome survey we have attempted to identify homologs to genes known to be induced and regulated under water stress conditions. We have identified 89 transcripts whose deduced amino acid sequences share similarities with proteins involved in uptake and transport of water and ion, 34 similar to components of the osmolyte metabolism, 67 involved in processes of membranes and proteins protection and 115 homologs of reactive oxygen species scavenger. Many drought-inducible genes identified are known to be regulated by development, salt, osmotic and low temperature. Their possible roles in specific or general mechanisms of water stress citrus responses are discussed.

The Cowpea Kinome: Genomic and Transcriptomic Analysis Under Biotic and Abiotic Stresses

“… Chinnusamy et al (2007) observed that cold temperature affects membrane fluidity and disrupts nucleic acid and protein structures besides hindering water and nutrient uptake. Torres et al (2007) suggest that osmotic and salt stress should be treated as a group of factors imposing alterations in the plant water status. Thus, the up-regulated VuPKs associated with these terms could act in processes related to signaling and response to water availability.…”

Variability levels of selected amino acids among mandarins produced in Uruguay

“…In this study, it was observed that some amino acids content increased (glutamic acid, asparagine and phenylalanine) upon maturity. The level of proline slightly decreased and a possible explanation for this result is the well-known increment in sugars concentration upon maturation, which will also increase the osmotic pressure within the juice sacs and, therefore, the contribution of proline as osmoprotectant is no longer needed (Torres et al, 2007). The results of the PCA (Fig.…”

Effects of low nitrogen supply on biochemical and physiological parameters related to nitrate and water, involving nitrate transporters and aquaporins in Citrus macrophylla

“…Studies of Citrus species have explored responses to water stress (Rodrı ´guez-Gamir et al 2010;Iván et al 2012;Martı ´nez-Alcántara et al 2012;Lourkisti et al 2021;Pagán et al 2022) and N (Serna et al 1992;Liao et al 2019;Chen et al 2020;Huang et al 2021). Some studies have assessed how N (Cama ñes et al 2007(Cama ñes et al , 2009Cerezo et al 2007;Martinez-Alcantara et al 2012) and water (Torres et al 2007;Wei et al 2019;Lourkisti et al 2021;Zhang et al 2021) are assimilated and transported in Citrus plants. However, little information is available on how Citrus respond to low N supply, and many published studies have been in open-field conditions (Liao et al 2019;Fan et al 2020;Huang et al 2021), studying responses but not the mechanisms behind them.…”