Abstract
Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress factor that limits agricultural productivity worldwide, and this problem is expected to grow in the future. Common bean is an important protein source in developing countries however highly susceptible to salt stress. To understand the underlying mechanism of salt stress responses, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and ion content analysis were performed on both salt-tolerant and susceptible common bean genotypes in saline conditions. Transcriptomics has demonstrated increased photosynthesis in saline conditions for tolerant genotype while the susceptible genotype acted in contrast. Transcriptome also displayed active carbon and amino-acid metabolism for the tolerant genotype. Analysis of metabolites with GC-MS demonstrated the boosted carbohydrate metabolism in the tolerant genotype with increased sugar content as well as better amino-acid metabolism. Accumulation of lysine, valine, and isoleucine in the roots of the susceptible genotype suggested a halted stress response. According to ion content comparison, the tolerant genotype managed to block accumulation of Na+ in the leaves while accumulating significantly less Na+ in the roots compared to susceptible genotype. K+ levels increased in the leaves of both genotype and the roots of the susceptible one but dropped in the roots of the tolerant genotype. Additionally, Zn+2 and Mn+2 levels were dropped in the tolerant roots, while Mo+2 levels were significantly higher in all tissues in both control and saline conditions for tolerant genotype. The results of the presented study have demonstrated the differences in contrasting genotypes and thus provide valuable information on the pivotal molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance.
Highlights
Salt accumulation has become one of the most imminent agricultural threats in the recent years
The greatest number of Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was observed in Ispir leaves (IL) with 3072 genes, while roots of the TR43477 (TR) displayed the lowest number of DEGs, with 910 genes (Figures 1A,B)
Comparison of the DEG lists has shown that 71 genes were differentially expressed in all tissues and both varieties upon salt treatment (Figure 1A). 3090 DEGs were specific to Ispir with 247 DEGs expressed in both above-ground and under-ground tissues
Summary
Salt accumulation has become one of the most imminent agricultural threats in the recent years. Most of the economically significant crops such as rice, maize, potato, tomato, and legumes are rather susceptible to salinity (Muchate et al, 2016) Production of these and other crops will have to increase up to 70% to cope up with the steadily growing human population, which is predicted to surpass 9 billion by 2050 (Davies and Bowman, 2016). These global challenges call for urgent but sustainable solutions, which can be found in more-salt tolerant varieties of cultivated plants. Identification of genes responsible for the superior salt tolerance, their functional characterization, and understanding of the associated metabolic processes are essential for sustainable agriculture in the era of overpopulation and climate change
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