Transcriptome analyses reveal the effects of mixed saline-alkali stress on indoleacetic acid and cytokinins in Malus hupehensis Rehd. leaves

Xin-Liang Wang; Ling Peng; Jian Wang; Jing-Lei Liu; Jing-Jing Jia; Li-Ping Tang

doi:10.1007/s12298-022-01275-4

Transcriptome analyses reveal the effects of mixed saline-alkali stress on indoleacetic acid and cytokinins in Malus hupehensis Rehd. leaves

Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2023 Jan;29(1):11-22. doi: 10.1007/s12298-022-01275-4. Epub 2023 Jan 5.

Authors

Xin-Liang Wang^{1

2

3}, Ling Peng², Jian Wang¹, Jing-Lei Liu¹, Jing-Jing Jia¹, Li-Ping Tang¹

Affiliations

¹ Editorial Department of Journal of Binzhou University, Binzhou University, 391 Huanghe 5th Road, Binzhou, 256603 Shandong People's Republic of China.
² Shandong Key Laboratory of Eco-Environmental Science for the Yellow River Delta, Binzhou University, 391 Huanghe 5th Road, Binzhou, 256603 Shandong People's Republic of China.
³ Binzhou University, 391 Huanghe 5th Road, Binzhou, 256603 Shandong People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Saline-alkali stress is a universal abiotic stress factor limiting fruit tree cultivation worldwide. Apple (Malus×domestica Borkh.) is one of the fruits with the largest yields worldwide. Tea crabapple (Malus hupehensis Rehd. var. pingyiensis Jiang) is a type of common apple rootstock in China. Because facultative apomixis occurs in this species, it is often used in molecular research. The present study investigated the molecular mechanism of the response of indoleacetic acid (IAA) and cytokinins [zeatin, trans-zeatin riboside (tZR), isopentenyladenine (iP), and isopentenyladenosine (iPA)] to mixed saline-alkali stress (MSAS) in tea crabapple leaves. The endogenous hormone content of tea crabapple leaves under MSAS was measured, and the expression of stress response-related genes was analyzed by RNA sequencing. The results showed that the concentration of IAA was initially higher and then lower than that in the control, whereas the concentration of zeatin, tZR, iP, and iPA was higher than that in the control. A total of 1262 differentially expressed genes were identified in the three comparison groups. Further analyses suggested that IAA and cytokinin biosynthetic genes were mostly upregulated in tea crabapple leaves, indicating that auxin and cytokinin signaling pathway regulation occurred in response to MSAS. These findings suggest that IAA and cytokinins play an important role in the response of tea crabapple to MSAS.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-022-01275-4.

Keywords: Auxin; Cytokinin; Differentially expressed genes; Malus hupehensis Rehd.; Mixed saline–alkali stress.

© Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.