Metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis of Lycium chinese and L. ruthenicum under salinity stress

Abstract

Background High soil salinity often adversely affects plant physiology and agricultural productivity of almost all crops worldwide, such as the crude drug known as wolfberry. However, the mechanism of this action in wolfberry is not fully understood yet. Results Here in this study, we studied different mechanisms potentially in Chinese wolfberry (Lycium chinese, LC) and black wolfberry (L. ruthenicum, LR) under salinity stress, by analyzing their transcriptome, metabolome, and hormone changes. The hormone detection analysis revealed that the ABA content was significantly lower in LR than LC under normal condition, and increased sharply under salinity stress in LR but not in LC. The transcriptome analysis showed that the salinity-responsive genes in wolfberry were mainly enriched in MAPK signaling, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, carbon metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction pathways in LC, while mainly related to carbon metabolism and protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum in LR. Metabolome results indicated that LR harbored higher flavone and flavonoid contents than LC under normal condition. However, the flavone and flavonoid contents were hardly changed in LR, but increased substantially in LC when exposed to salinity stress. Conclusions Our results adds ABA and flavone to mechanism understanding of salinity tolerance in wolfberry. In addition, flavone plays a positive role in resistance to salinity stress in wolfberry.

Mepiquat chloride inhibits soybean growth but improves drought resistance

“…Combining multi-omics approaches can elucidate gene functions and networks under physiological and environmental stresses ( Singh et al, 2013 ). Qin et al (2022) studied the response mechanism of two kinds of Lycium barbarum under salt stress through transcriptomics and metabolomics and revealed the intrinsic reason for the high salt tolerance of L. barbarum . By integrating metabolomic and transcriptomic studies, Peng et al (2021) revealed that flavonoids, abscisic acid, and nitric oxide jointly regulate the frost resistance of Liriope spicata and identified the involvement of the flavonoid pathway, abscisic acid biosynthesis, and the genes and metabolites of NO oxidative synthesis to construct a comprehensive network of frost resistance of L. spicata .…”

Impact of polyploidy on plant tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses

“…These changes were correlated with lower contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), a commonly used indicator of lipid peroxidation and membrane damage ( Liu et al, 2011 ; Jiang et al, 2013 ; Tu et al, 2014 ; Fan et al, 2016a ). On the other hand, transcriptomic and metabolomic studies also highlight the upregulation of metabolic pathways involved not only in antioxidant defense, but also in the synthesis of free amino acids (usually proline, but also methionine, aspartic acid, and arginine, among others), organic acids (e.g., oxaloacetic acid, fumaric acid), polyhydric alcohols (myoinositol, inositol), soluble sugars, polyamines, flavonoids and/or late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins (which are rich in hydrophilic amino acids), as biochemical mechanisms to protect cells from dehydration damage, both in salt-tolerant diploids (e.g., Li et al, 2021 ; Qin et al, 2022 and references therein) as well as in polyploids ( Wang et al, 2018 ; Sicilia et al, 2019 ; Zhao et al, 2022 ; see also below).…”

Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analysis of Seedling-Stage Soybean Responses to PEG-Simulated Drought Stress

“…MAPK signaling and plant hormone signal transduction pathways were over-represented in wolfberry salt response genes. However, LR contains higher flavonoid and flavonoid concentrations than LC [ 17 ]. Cultivars with improved abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, increased nutritional value, and agronomic importance must be developed.…”