Characterization of the transcriptional profiles in common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) under PEG-mediated drought stress

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Background: Common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is an important staple food crop in southwest China, where drought stress is one of the largest limiting factors that lead to decreased crop production. To reveal the molecular mechanism of common buckwheat in response to drought stress, we performed a comprehensive transcriptomics study to evaluate gene expression profiles of common buckwheat during PEG-mediated drought treatment. Results: In total, 45 million clean reads were assembled into 53,404 unigenes with an average length of 749 bp and N50 length of 1296 bp. A total of 1329 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by comparing wellwatered and drought-treated plants, out of which 666 were upregulated and 663 were downregulated. Furthermore, we defined the functional characteristics of DEGs using GO and KEGG classifications. GO enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs were significantly overrepresented in four categories, namely, oxidoreductase activity, oxidation-reduction process, xyloglucan:xyloglucosyl transferase activity, and apoplast. Using KEGG pathway analysis, a large number of annotated genes were overrepresented in terms such as plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, photosynthesis, and carbon metabolism. Conclusions: These results can be further exploited to investigate the molecular mechanism of common buckwheat in response to drought treatment and could supply with valuable molecular sources for abiotic-tolerant elite breeding programs in the future.