Dynamic change mechanism of the desert plant Nitraria sibirica growth in natural habitat

Abstract

Growth and development are very complex and important physiological processes in plant life activities, and transcriptome sequencing can be used to evaluate gene expression and metabolic pathways in plant growth at the genome level. However, as a desert plant with important economic and ecological value, leaf transcription of Nitraria sibirica at different growth stages has not been studied. The aim of this study was to explore the physiological characteristics and transcriptional changes of N. sibirica in three developmental stages (vegetative, flowering and fruiting), focusing on the analysis of gene expression regulation. To this end, morphological and physiological parameters of N. sibirica leaves were determined by field in situ, and changes in gene expression were studied by transcriptome sequencing. It was found that the morphology and physiological characteristics of N. sibirica showed significant differences in the three developmental stages (P < 0.05), indicating that the growth and development of N. sibirica were dynamic. Transcriptomic analysis revealed 206 core differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were continuously expressed. GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) enrichment revealed that these core DEGs were involved in biological processes related to environmental responses. Time series analysis and KEGG revealed that replication and repair, tryptophan metabolism, and diterpenoid biosynthesis pathways were significantly up-regulated, while carbohydrate metabolism pathways were significantly down-regulated, indicating that gene involvement pathways were closely related to developmental stages. Further analysis of the transcription factor prediction and protein–protein interaction network of DEGs with continuous up-regulated revealed that 36 DEGs had the ability to encode transcription factors, with most of them belonging to the MYB family. Finally, the identification of the 10 core genes may play an important role in leaf development in N. sibirica. This study provides resources to reveal the roles of many specific genes and transcription factors in the leaf of N. sibirica, and helps to explore the molecular mechanisms of regulation at different stages of development.