Abstract
Key message
Nitraria sibirica Pall. regulates its tolerance to salt stress mainly by adjusting ion balance, modifying cell wall structure, and activating signal transduction pathways.
Abstract
N. sibirica, as a typical halophyte, can not only effectively restore saline-alkali land, but also has high economic value. However, studies on its salt tolerance at combining molecular and physiological levels were limited. In this study, the salt tolerance of N. sibirica was analyzed based on Pacbio full-length transcriptome sequencing, and the salt tolerance in the physiological level was verified by key genes. The results showed that 89,017 full-length transcripts were obtained, of which 84,632 sequences were annotated. A total of 86,482 coding sequences (CDS) were predicted and 6561 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. DEGs were significantly enriched in “sodium ion homeostasis”, “response to osmotic stress”, “reactive oxygen species metabolic process”, “defense response by cell wall thickening”, “signal transduction”, etc. The expression levels for most of these DEGs increased under salt stress. A total of 69 key genes were screened based on weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), of which 33 were first reported on salt tolerance. Moreover, NsRabE1c gene with the highest expression level was selected to verify its salt tolerance. Over-expression of NsRabE1c gene enhanced the germination potential and root length of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants without salt treatment as compared to those of Col-0 and AtRabE1c mutant. The expression levels of NsRabE1c decreased in the growth stagnation phase, while significantly increased in the growth recovery phase under salt stress. We predicted that NsRabE1c gene help N. sibirica resist salt stress through the regulation of plant growth. The results of this study deepen the understanding of salinity resistance in N. sibirica.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural. Science Foundation of China (31770437). We thank Xu Yan in Huazhong Agricultural University for technical support in the analysis of the transcriptome sequencing data.
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This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (31770437).
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PZ and YY designed the experiments. PZ and FZ performed most of the experiments. ZW and SC extracted the RNA and conducted the transgenic experiments. PZ and WL wrote the original draft. FZ, WL and YY revised the paper. All authors have read and approved to the published version of the manuscript.
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Zhang, P., Zhang, F., Wu, Z. et al. Analysis on the salt tolerance of Nitraria sibirica Pall. based on Pacbio full-length transcriptome sequencing. Plant Cell Rep 42, 1665–1686 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-023-03052-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-023-03052-3