Gene Expression Responses to Sequential Nutrient Deficiency Stresses in Soybean

Throughout the growing season, crops experience a multitude of short periods of various abiotic stresses. These stress events have long-term impacts on plant performance and yield. It is imperative to improve our understanding of the genes and biological processes underlying plant stress tolerance to mitigate end of season yield loss. The majority of studies examining transcriptional changes induced by stress focus on single stress events. Few studies have been performed in model or crop species to examine transcriptional responses of plants exposed to repeated or sequential stress exposure, which better reflect field conditions. In this study, we examine the transcriptional profile of soybean plants exposed to iron deficiency stress followed by phosphate deficiency stress (-Fe-P(i)). Comparing this response to previous studies, we identified a core suite of genes conserved across all repeated stress exposures (-Fe-P(i), -Fe-Fe, -P(i)-P(i)). Additionally, we determined transcriptional response to sequential stress exposure (-Fe-P(i)) involves genes usually associated with reproduction, not stress responses. These findings highlight the plasticity of the plant transcriptome and the complexity of unraveling stress response pathways.