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Genotype-Specific Modulation of Drought Tolerance by Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Foxtail Millet

ABSTRACT: Drought stress is a major environmental factor limiting crop productivity. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as beneficial soil microbes, can improve plant growth and stress resilience; however, the effectiveness of this symbiosis is often influenced by the host plant's genetic background. In this study, we investigated the interaction between AM symbiosis and drought tolerance in two foxtail millet (Setaria italica) genotypes with contrasting drought responses: the drought-tolerant ISE42 and the drought-sensitive TT8. Following a 14-day drought treatment, both genotypes exhibited wilting, but only AMF-colonized ISE42 plants recovered upon rewatering. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that AM symbiosis significantly enhanced the expression of genes involved in nitrogen transport, assimilation, lignin metabolism, and cellulose biosynthesis in ISE42, but not in TT8. These molecular changes suggest improved nutrient uptake and cell wall reinforcement as key mechanisms underlying enhanced drought tolerance. Additionally, stress hormone signaling pathways were downregulated in colonized ISE42 roots, indicating possible alleviation of drought-induced stress through AM symbiosis. Our results demonstrate genotype-specific effects of AMF on drought tolerance and highlight the importance of considering host genetic variation in the application of AMF for crop improvement.

ORGANISM(S): Setaria italica

PROVIDER: GSE306689 | GEO | 2025/09/02

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Background: Drought stress is the major environmental stress that affects plant growth and productivity. It triggers in plants a wide range of responses detectable at different scales: molecular, biochemical and physiological levels. At the molecular level the response to drought stress results in the differential expression of several metabolic pathways. For this reason, explore the subtle differences existing in gene expression of drought sensitive and drought tolerant genotypes allows to identify drought-related genes that could be used for selection of drought tolerance traits. Genome-wide RNA-Seq technology was used to compare the drought response of two sorghum genotypes characterized by contrasting water use efficiency. Results: the physiological measurements carried out confirmed the drought sensitivity of IS20351 and the drought tolerance of IS22330 previously studied. The expression of drought-related genes was more abundant in the sensitive genotype IS20351 compared to the tolerant IS22330. The Gene Ontology enrichment highlighted a massive increase in transcript abundance in “response to stress” and “abiotic stimulus”, “oxidation-reduction reaction” in the sensitive genotype IS20351 under drought stress. “Antioxidant” and “secondary metabolism”, “photosynthesis and carbon fixation process”, “lipids” and “carbon metabolism” were the pathways most affected by drought in the sensitive genotype IS20351. The sensitive genotype IS20351 showed under well-watered conditions a lower constitutive expression level of “secondary metabolic process” (GO:0019748) and “glutathione transferase activity” (GO:000004364). Conclusions: RNA-Seq analysis revealed to be a very useful tool to explore differences between sensitive and tolerant sorghum genotypes. The transcriptomic results supported all the physiological measurements and were crucial to clarify the tolerance of the two genotypes studied. The connection between the differential gene expression and the physiological response to drought states unequivocally the drought tolerance of the genotype IS22330 and the strategy adopted to cope with drought stress.

Project description:Secondary metabolites play a key role in coordinating ecology and defense strategies of plants. Diversity of these metabolites arise by conjugation of core structures with diverse chemical moieties, such as sugars in glycosylation. Active pools of phytohormones, including those involved in plant stress response are also regulated by glycosylation. While, much is known about the enzymes involved in glycosylation, we know little about their regulation or coordination with other processes. We characterized the flavonoid pathway transcription factor, TRANSPARENT TESTA 8 (TT8) in Arabidopsis thaliana, using an integrative omics strategy. This approach provides a systems level understanding of the cellular machinery that is used to generate metabolite diversity by glycosylation. Metabolomics analysis of TT8 loss-of-function and inducible overexpression lines showed that TT8 coordinates glycosylation of not only flavonoids, but also nucleotides, thus, implicating TT8 in regulating pools of activated nucleotide sugars. Transcriptome and promoter network analyses revealed that TT8 regulome included sugar transporters, proteins involved in sugar binding and sequestration, and a number of carbohydrate active enzymes. Importantly, TT8 affects stress response, along with brassinosteroid and jasmonic acid biosynthesis, by directly binding to the promoters of key genes of these processes. This combined effect on metabolites glycosylation and stress hormones by TT8 inducible overexpression led to significant increase in tolerance towards multiple abiotic and biotic stresses. Conversely, loss of TT8 leads to increased sensitivity to these stresses. Thus, the transcription factor TT8 is an integrator of secondary metabolism and stress response. These findings provide novel approaches to improve broad-spectrum stress tolerance. Gene expression analysis for 6-day old Arabidopsis thaliana seedling were performed for TT8 loss-of-function line, tt8-3 (in Ws background), and its wild type background control, Ws. Two independent biological replicates for each line were hybridized onto two slides of Agilent SurePrint G2 Agilent Arabidopsis V4 (4x44K), with each slide having two technical replicates for each line. Contributors: Amit Rai, Shivshankar Umashankar, Megha, Lim Boon Kiat, Johanan Aow Shao Bing, Sanjay Swarup.

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Genotype-Specific Modulation of Drought Tolerance by Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Foxtail Millet

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