Biologia Plantarum (Sep 2019)

Identification of differentially expressed genes of Haloxylon ammodendronin response to salinity stress

  • J.F. HE,
  • Y.Y. FANG,
  • Z.X. LU,
  • L.W. WANG,
  • X.Q. ZHAO,
  • X.F. FU,
  • J. ZHAO,
  • H.K. LIU

DOI
https://doi.org/10.32615/bp.2019.066
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 63, no. 1
pp. 610 – 617

Abstract

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Haloxylon ammodendron (C.A. Mey.), an endangered desert tree with excellent drought and salinity tolerance, provides a unique genotype to characterize and understand the tolerance mechanisms. In this study, four RNA-Seq libraries were constructed and sequenced from H. ammodendron under salinity stress. Total 12 027 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, in which 4 023, 3 517, 4 487 genes were differentially expressed under light salinity stress (200 mM NaCl), moderate salinity stress (400 mM NaCl), and severe salinity stress (800 mM NaCl), respectively. The up-regulated DEGs included several transcription factors (e.g., MYB and bHLH), hormone-related genes (e.g., cytochrome P450), protein kinases (e.g., Atpk2-Atpk19 like), and genes involved in carbon metabolism (e.g., UDP glycosyltransferase), osmotic regulation (e.g., proline transporter), and ubiquitin proteasome system (e.g., ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes). Heat shock proteins were identified as positive regulators of salinity tolerance in H. ammodendron. The expression patterns of 13 DEGs verified by real-time quantitative PCR were identically consistent with the variations in transcript abundance identified by RNA-Seq. Our results provide new insights into molecular mechanism of H. ammodendron in response to salinity stress.

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