Abstract
In a previous study, we found that H2S alleviates salinity stress in cucumber by maintaining the Na+/K+ balance and by regulating H2S metabolism and the oxidative stress response. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms behind H2S-regulated salt-stress tolerance in cucumber. Here, an integrated transcriptomic and proteomic analysis based on RNA-seq and 2-DE was used to investigate the global mechanism underlying H2S-regulated salt-stress tolerance. In total, 11,761 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 61 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified. Analysis of the pathways associated with the DEGs showed that salt stress enriched expression of genes in primary and energy metabolism, such as photosynthesis, carbon metabolism and biosynthesis of amino acids. Application of H2S significantly decreased these DEGs but enriched DEGs related to plant-pathogen interaction, sulfur-containing metabolism, cell defense, and signal transduction pathways. Notably, changes related to sulfur-containing metabolism and cell defense were also observed through proteome analysis, such as Cysteine synthase 1, Glutathione S-transferase U25-like, Protein disulfide-isomerase, and Peroxidase 2. We present the first global analysis of the mechanism underlying H2S regulation of salt-stress tolerance in cucumber through tracking changes in the expression of specific proteins and genes.
Highlights
Salinization of soil is gradually becoming an earnest threat to world agriculture, affecting approximately 20% of arable irrigated land and leading to the loss of US$ 27.5 billion per annum (Abdel Latef et al, 2019)
Total RNA from three replicates each of the control (C), 200 mM NaCl (S), and 15 μM NaHS (H2S) treatment samples was extracted for RNA sequencing by Illumina Hiseq 2500
We have previously reported that exogenous application of Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) alleviates the NaCl-induced toxicity in the leaves and roots of cucumber through analysis of morphology, photosynthesis, stomatal responses, Reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, and H2S homeostasis at the physiological and biochemical levels (Jiang et al, 2019)
Summary
Salinization of soil is gradually becoming an earnest threat to world agriculture, affecting approximately 20% of arable irrigated land and leading to the loss of US$ 27.5 billion per annum (Abdel Latef et al, 2019). Plants may develop a sophisticated mechanism to exclude toxic ions to mitigate salt stress and lots of studies have demonstrated that salt-tolerant genotypes may accumulate less Na+ through reducing Na+ influx into the root, control of Na+ xylem loading, Na+ retrieval from the xylem, Na+ recirculation in the phloem, Na+ efflux from the root, intracellular compartmentation of Na+ into the vacuoles, and Na+ secretion from the leaf, which is a general rationale for combating salt stress (Zhu, 2003) These responses can be modified by small molecules such as plant growth regulators and signaling molecules (Mostofa et al, 2015a). The L-CD and D-CD were identified as being mainly responsible for the degradation of cysteine in order to generate H2S (Jin et al, 2011)
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