Abstract
β-cyclocitral (βCC), a major apocarotenoid of β-carotene, enhances plants’ defense against environmental stresses. However, the knowledge of βCC’s involvement in the complex stress-signaling network is limited. Here we demonstrate how βCC reprograms the transcriptional responses that enable Solanum lycopersicum L. (tomato) plants to endure a plethora of environmental stresses. Comparative transcriptome analysis of control and βCC-treated tomato plants was done by generating RNA sequences in the BGISEQ-500 platform. The trimmed sequences were mapped on the tomato reference genome that identifies 211 protein-coding differentially expressed genes. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis and their enrichment uncovered that only upregulated genes are attributed to the stress response. Moreover, 80% of the upregulated genes are functionally related to abiotic and biotic stresses. Co-functional analysis of stress-responsive genes revealed a network of 18 genes that code for heat shock proteins, transcription factors (TFs), and calcium-binding proteins. The upregulation of jasmonic acid (JA)-dependent TFs (MYC2, MYB44, ERFs) but not the JA biosynthetic genes is surprising. However, the upregulation of DREB3, an abscisic acid (ABA)-independent TF, validates the unaltered expression of ABA biosynthetic genes. We conclude that βCC treatment upregulates multiple stress-responsive genes without eliciting JA and ABA biosynthesis.
Highlights
Solanum lycopersicum L. is one of the most important cultivated food crops in the family Solanaceae [1]
Plants possess elaborate antioxidant machinery comprised of enzymatic and nonenzymatic reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers [6] that act on superoxide radical (O−2), hydroxyl radical (OH), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and singlet oxygen (1O2)
It was shown that βCC treatment enhances resistance to high light stress and regulates singlet oxygen-responsive genes
Summary
Solanum lycopersicum L. (tomato) is one of the most important cultivated food crops in the family Solanaceae [1]. Recent studies showed that exogenous application of βCC primes plants against drought and develops resistance against insect herbivores [3,11]. Together, these findings indicate that, presumably, βCC is capable of eliciting multiple stress signals. The high-throughput sequencing utilizes the principle of next-generation sequencing to annotate transcriptomes in a real-time manner It enables the detection of both known and novel transcripts along with alternatively spliced isoforms, splice sites, and small and non-coding RNAs [15]. We investigated βCC-induced responses by comparative transcriptome analysis of exogenous βCC-treated and control leaves using RNA-sequencing technology and revealed βCC’s role in developing multiple stress resistance in tomato plants
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