Involvement of an ABI-like protein and a Ca2+-ATPase in drought tolerance as revealed by transcript profiling of a sweetpotato somatic hybrid and its parents Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. and I. triloba L.

Yufeng Yang,Yannan Wang,Cancan Zhu,Na Qin,Hong Zhai,Junxia Li,Qingchang Liu,Guohong Yang,Xiaodong Dai,Xinzhi Xu,Shaozhen He,Licong Jia,Haibing Yang

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193193

Abstract

Previously, we obtained the sweetpotato somatic hybrid KT1 from a cross between sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) cv. Kokei No. 14 and its drought-tolerant wild relative I. triloba L. KT1 not only inherited the thick storage root characteristic of Kokei No. 14 but also the drought-tolerance trait of I. triloba L. The aim of this study was to explore the molecular mechanism of the drought tolerance of KT1. Four-week-old in vitro-grown plants of KT1, Kokei No. 14, and I. triloba L. were subjected to a simulated drought stress treatment (30% PEG6000) for 0, 6, 12 and 24 h. Total RNA was extracted from samples at each time point, and then used for transcriptome sequencing. The gene transcript profiles of KT1 and its parents were compared to identify differentially expressed genes, and drought-related modules were screened by a weighted gene co-expression network analysis. The functions of ABI-like protein and Ca2+-ATPase, two proteins screened from the cyan and light yellow modules, were analyzed in terms of their potential roles in drought tolerance in KT1 and its parents. These analyses of the drought responses of KT1 and its somatic donors at the transcriptional level provide new annotations for the molecular mechanism of drought tolerance in the somatic hybrid KT1 and its parents.

Highlights

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is an important food, fodder, industrial raw material, and bio-energy resource crop, and plays important roles in food security and energy security worldwide, especially in China [1]
KT1 is the somatic hybrid of Kokei No 14 (K14) and triloba L. (Tri), which has a storage root like K14 and drought tolerance like Tri
The sequence lengths were mainly distributed in the size range of 200–2000 bp (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is an important food, fodder, industrial raw material, and bio-energy resource crop, and plays important roles in food security and energy security worldwide, especially in China [1]. In the context of the increasing world population and climate change, the global water shortage has become one of the major challenges in agricultural production. Agricultural activities account for about 75% of global water consumption; the impact of drought stress on the productivity of field crops is an important issue. Transcript profiling of sweetpotato identified genes involved in drought tolerance. 14 was granted by "Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System" The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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