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Physiological and transcriptomic responses of reproductive stage soybean to drought stress

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The dynamic alterations of the physiological and molecular processes in reproductive stage soybean indicated the dramatic impact caused by drought.

Abstract

Drought is a major abiotic stress that limits soybean (Glycine max) production. Most prior studies were focused on either model species or crops that are at their vegetative stages. It is known that the reproductive stage of soybean is more susceptible to drought. Therefore, an understanding on the responsive mechanisms during this stage will not only be important for basic plant physiology, but the knowledge can also be used for crop improvement via either genetic engineering or molecular breeding. In this study, physiological measurements and RNA-Seq analysis were used to dissect the metabolic alterations and molecular responses in the leaves of soybean grown at drought condition. Photosynthesis rate, stomata conductance, transpiration, and water potential were reduced. The activities of SOD and CAT were increased, while the activity of POD stayed unchanged. A total of 2771 annotated genes with at least twofold changes were found to be differentially expressed in the drought-stressed plants in which 1798 genes were upregulated and 973 were downregulated. Via KEGG analysis, these genes were assigned to multiple molecular pathways, including ABA biogenesis, compatible compound accumulation, secondary metabolite synthesis, fatty acid desaturation, plant transcription factors, etc. The large number of differentially expressed genes and the diverse pathways indicated that soybean employs complicated mechanisms to cope with drought. Some of the identified genes and pathways can be used as targets for genetic engineering or molecular breeding to improve drought resistance in soybean.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a start-up fund (to C.Z.) from Purdue University.

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  1. Congshan Xu and Chao Xia have contributed equally to the article.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Congshan Xu, Chao Xia, Xiangjun Zhou, Jing Huang, Yan Liu, Yiwei Jiang, Shaun Casteel & Cankui Zhang

  2. Maize Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, Sichuan, China

    Chao Xia

  3. Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, 571101, Hainan, China

    Zhiqiang Xia

  4. Biost Technology Co., Ltd, Beijing, 102206, China

    Zhiqiang Huang

  5. The Institute of Sericulture, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310021, Zhejiang, China

    Yan Liu

  6. Purdue Center for Plant Biology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Cankui Zhang

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  1. Congshan Xu
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Correspondence to Cankui Zhang.

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Communicated by Leena Tripathi.

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Xu, C., Xia, C., Xia, Z. et al. Physiological and transcriptomic responses of reproductive stage soybean to drought stress. Plant Cell Rep 37, 1611–1624 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-018-2332-3

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