Cargando…
Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms
BACKGROUND: Soil salinity is an important factor affecting growth, development, and productivity of almost all land plants, including the forage crop alfalfa (Medicago sativa). However, little is known about how alfalfa responds and adapts to salt stress, particularly among different salt-tolerant c...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2018
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5815232/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29448940 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12870-018-1250-4 |
_version_ | 1783300466993528832 |
---|---|
author | Lei, Yunting Xu, Yuxing Hettenhausen, Christian Lu, Chengkai Shen, Guojing Zhang, Cuiping Li, Jing Song, Juan Lin, Honghui Wu, Jianqiang |
author_facet | Lei, Yunting Xu, Yuxing Hettenhausen, Christian Lu, Chengkai Shen, Guojing Zhang, Cuiping Li, Jing Song, Juan Lin, Honghui Wu, Jianqiang |
author_sort | Lei, Yunting |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Soil salinity is an important factor affecting growth, development, and productivity of almost all land plants, including the forage crop alfalfa (Medicago sativa). However, little is known about how alfalfa responds and adapts to salt stress, particularly among different salt-tolerant cultivars. RESULTS: Among seven alfalfa cultivars, we found that Zhongmu-1 (ZM) is relatively salt-tolerant and Xingjiang Daye (XJ) is salt-sensitive. Compared to XJ, ZM showed slower growth under low-salt conditions, but exhibited stronger tolerance to salt stress. RNA-seq analysis revealed 2237 and 1125 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between ZM and XJ in the presence and absence of salt stress, among which many genes are involved in stress-related pathways. After salt treatment, compared with the controls, the number of DEGs in XJ (19373) was about four times of that in ZM (4833). We also detected specific differential gene expression patterns: In response to salt stress, compared with XJ, ZM maintained relatively more stable expression levels of genes related to the ROS and Ca(2+) pathways, phytohormone biosynthesis, and Na(+)/K(+) transport. Notably, several salt resistance-associated genes always showed greater levels of expression in ZM than in XJ, including a transcription factor. Consistent with the suppression of plant growth resulting from salt stress, the expression of numerous photosynthesis- and growth hormone-related genes decreased more dramatically in XJ than in ZM. By contrast, the expression levels of photosynthetic genes were lower in ZM under low-salt conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with XJ, ZM is a salt-tolerant alfalfa cultivar possessing specific regulatory mechanisms conferring exceptional salt tolerance, likely by maintaining high transcript levels of abiotic and biotic stress resistance-related genes. Our results suggest that maintaining this specific physiological status and/or plant adaptation to salt stress most likely arises by inhibition of plant growth in ZM through plant hormone interactions. This study identifies new candidate genes that may regulate alfalfa tolerance to salt stress and increases the understanding of the genetic basis for salt tolerance. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1250-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5815232 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-58152322018-02-21 Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms Lei, Yunting Xu, Yuxing Hettenhausen, Christian Lu, Chengkai Shen, Guojing Zhang, Cuiping Li, Jing Song, Juan Lin, Honghui Wu, Jianqiang BMC Plant Biol Research Article BACKGROUND: Soil salinity is an important factor affecting growth, development, and productivity of almost all land plants, including the forage crop alfalfa (Medicago sativa). However, little is known about how alfalfa responds and adapts to salt stress, particularly among different salt-tolerant cultivars. RESULTS: Among seven alfalfa cultivars, we found that Zhongmu-1 (ZM) is relatively salt-tolerant and Xingjiang Daye (XJ) is salt-sensitive. Compared to XJ, ZM showed slower growth under low-salt conditions, but exhibited stronger tolerance to salt stress. RNA-seq analysis revealed 2237 and 1125 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between ZM and XJ in the presence and absence of salt stress, among which many genes are involved in stress-related pathways. After salt treatment, compared with the controls, the number of DEGs in XJ (19373) was about four times of that in ZM (4833). We also detected specific differential gene expression patterns: In response to salt stress, compared with XJ, ZM maintained relatively more stable expression levels of genes related to the ROS and Ca(2+) pathways, phytohormone biosynthesis, and Na(+)/K(+) transport. Notably, several salt resistance-associated genes always showed greater levels of expression in ZM than in XJ, including a transcription factor. Consistent with the suppression of plant growth resulting from salt stress, the expression of numerous photosynthesis- and growth hormone-related genes decreased more dramatically in XJ than in ZM. By contrast, the expression levels of photosynthetic genes were lower in ZM under low-salt conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with XJ, ZM is a salt-tolerant alfalfa cultivar possessing specific regulatory mechanisms conferring exceptional salt tolerance, likely by maintaining high transcript levels of abiotic and biotic stress resistance-related genes. Our results suggest that maintaining this specific physiological status and/or plant adaptation to salt stress most likely arises by inhibition of plant growth in ZM through plant hormone interactions. This study identifies new candidate genes that may regulate alfalfa tolerance to salt stress and increases the understanding of the genetic basis for salt tolerance. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1250-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2018-02-15 /pmc/articles/PMC5815232/ /pubmed/29448940 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12870-018-1250-4 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Lei, Yunting Xu, Yuxing Hettenhausen, Christian Lu, Chengkai Shen, Guojing Zhang, Cuiping Li, Jing Song, Juan Lin, Honghui Wu, Jianqiang Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms |
title | Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms |
title_full | Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms |
title_fullStr | Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms |
title_full_unstemmed | Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms |
title_short | Comparative analysis of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms |
title_sort | comparative analysis of alfalfa (medicago sativa l.) leaf transcriptomes reveals genotype-specific salt tolerance mechanisms |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5815232/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29448940 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12870-018-1250-4 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT leiyunting comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT xuyuxing comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT hettenhausenchristian comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT luchengkai comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT shenguojing comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT zhangcuiping comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT lijing comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT songjuan comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT linhonghui comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms AT wujianqiang comparativeanalysisofalfalfamedicagosativalleaftranscriptomesrevealsgenotypespecificsalttolerancemechanisms |