Transcriptome-based analysis of the effects of salicylic acid and high light on lipid and astaxanthin accumulation in Haematococcus pluvialis

BACKGROUND: The unicellular alga Haematococcus pluvialis has achieved considerable interests for its capacity to accumulate large amounts of triacylglycerol and astaxanthin under various environmental stresses. To our knowledge, studies focusing on transcriptome research of H. pluvialis under exogenous hormones together with physical stresses are rare. In the present study, the change patterns at transcriptome level were analyzed to distinguish the multiple defensive systems of astaxanthin and fatty acid metabolism against exogenous salicylic acid and high light (SAHL) stresses. RESULTS: Based on RNA-seq data, a total of 112,463 unigenes and 61,191 genes were annotated in six databases, including NR, KEGG, Swiss-Prot, PFAM, COG and GO. Analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in KEGG identified many transcripts that associated with the biosynthesis of primary and secondary metabolites, photosynthesis, and immune system responses. Furthermore, 705 unigenes predicted as putative transcription factors (TFs) were identified, and the most abundant TFs families were likely to be associated with the biosynthesis of astaxanthin and fatty acid in H. pluvialis upon exposure to SAHL stresses. Additionally, majority of the fifteen key genes involved in astaxanthin and fatty acid biosynthesis pathways presented the same expression pattern, resulting in increased accumulation of astaxanthin and fatty acids in single celled H. pluvialis, in which astaxanthin content increased from 0.56 ± 0.05 mg·L(−1) at stage Control to 0.89 ± 0.12 mg·L(−1) at stage SAHL_48. And positive correlations were observed among these studied genes by Pearson Correlation (PC) analysis, indicating the coordination between astaxanthin and fatty acid biosynthesis. In addition, protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analysis also demonstrated that this coordination might be at transcriptional level. CONCLUSION: The results in this study provided valuable information to illustrate the molecular mechanisms of coordinate relations between astaxanthin and fatty acid biosynthesis. And salicylic acid might play a role in self-protection processes of cells, helping adaption of H. pluvialis to high light stress. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13068-021-01933-x.