Abstract
Cotton is an economically important crop throughout the world, and is a pioneer crop in salt stress tolerance research. Investigation of the genetic regulation of salinity tolerance will provide information for salt stress-resistant breeding. Here, we employed next-generation RNA-Seq technology to elucidate the salt-tolerant mechanisms in cotton using the diploid cotton species Gossypium davidsonii which has superior stress tolerance. A total of 4744 and 5337 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found to be involved in salt stress tolerance in roots and leaves, respectively. Gene function annotation elucidated salt overly sensitive (SOS) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling pathways. Furthermore, we found that photosynthesis pathways and metabolism play important roles in ion homeostasis and oxidation balance. Moreover, our studies revealed that alternative splicing also contributes to salt-stress responses at the posttranscriptional level, implying its functional role in response to salinity stress. This study not only provides a valuable resource for understanding the genetic control of salt stress in cotton, but also lays a substantial foundation for the genetic improvement of crop resistance to salt stress.
Highlights
Cotton is an economically important crop throughout the world, and is a pioneer crop in salt stress tolerance research
The salt tolerance properties of G. davidsonii were first observed by comparing this species with two other G. hirsutum accessions, ZS9612 and Z9807, which exhibited sensitivities and insensitivities to salinity stress, respectively
We found that G. davidsonii showed a higher relative photosynthetic rate (Fig. 1a) and relative leaf water content after salt stress (Fig. S1) than ZS9612, these values were much lower in both genotypes after 12 h of exposure to NaCl compared with controls
Summary
Cotton is an economically important crop throughout the world, and is a pioneer crop in salt stress tolerance research. Gene function annotation elucidated salt overly sensitive (SOS) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling pathways. Plants exhibit a variety of responses to salt stress that enable them to tolerate adverse conditions involving physiological, biochemical, and molecular processes. It is clear that signaling pathways play a pivotal role in this process, including various hormones, salt overly sensitive (SOS), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling pathways[5,6]. Over-expression of the rice NAC gene, SNAC1, could improve salt tolerance in transgenic cotton[13]. Key regulators in the salt stress response are often involved in signal transduction pathways and protein kinase is the most typical player at this level. Over-expression of the cotton annexin gene, GhAnn[1], confers tolerance to salt stress of transgenic plants[25]
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