Project description:Melatonin plays a potential role in multiple plant developmental processes and stress response. However, there are no reports regarding exogenous melatonin promoting rice seed germination under salinity and nor about the underlying molecular mechanisms at genome-wide. Here, we revealed that exogenous application of melatonin conferred roles in promoting rice seed germination under salinity. The putative molecular mechanisms of exogenous melatonin in promoting rice seed germination under high salinity were further investigated through metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses. The results state clearly that the phytohormone contents were reprogrammed, the activities of SOD, CAT, POD were enhanced, and the total antioxidant capacity was activated under salinity by exogenous melatonin. Additionally, melatonin-pre-treated seeds exhibited higher concentrations of glycosides than non-treated seeds under salinity. Furthermore, exogenous melatonin alleviated the accumulation of fatty acids induced by salinity. Genome-wide transcriptomic profiling identified 7160 transcripts that were differentially expressed in NaCl, MT100 and control. Pathway and GO term enrichment analysis revealed that genes involved in the response to oxidative stress, hormone metabolism, heme building, mitochondrion, tricarboxylic acid transformation were altered after melatonin pre-treatment under salinity. This study provides the first evidence of the protective roles of exogenous melatonin in increasing rice seed germination under salt stress, mainly via activation of antioxidants and modulation of metabolic homeostasis.
Project description:Melatonin is a well-known agent that plays multiple roles in animals. Its possible function in plants is less clear. In the present study, we tested the effect of melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) on soybean growth and development. Both spraying of leaves and seed-coating with melatonin significantly promoted soybean growth as judged from leaf size and plant height. This enhancement was also observed in soybean production and their fatty acid content. Melatonin increased pod number, seed number and seed weight. However, the 100-seed weight was not influenced by melatonin application. Melatonin also improved soybean tolerance to salt and drought stresses. Transcriptome analysis revealed that melatonin up-regulated the expression of many genes and alleviated the inhibitory effects of salt stress on gene expressions. Further detailed analysis of the affected pathways documents that melatonin likely achieved its promotional roles in soybean through enhancement of genes involved in cell division, photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis and ascorbate metabolism. Our results demonstrate that melatonin has significant potential for improving of soybean growth and seed production. Further study should uncover more about the molecular mechanisms of melatoninM-bM-^@M-^Ys function in soybeans and other crops. Four different treatments were chosen, water, salt, 100M-BM-5M melatonin and salt plus 100M-BM-5M melatonin. The comparison of salt/melatonin-treated sample versus water-treated sample reveals salt or melatonin induced transcriptome changes. The comparison of melatonin plus salt treated sample versus salt-treated sample reveals melatonin induced changes when salt exists.
Project description:Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is sensitive to drought stress, which largely affects its transplantation survival rate, fruit yield and quality. Abscisic acid (ABA) treatment can reduce the drought-induced adverse impacts on plants. However, no studies have ever applied ABA as an exogenous supply to alleviate the drought stress on pomegranates. In this study, we performed comparative transcriptome analysis between the ABA-treated and untreated pomegranates to reveal the ABA-induced mechanisms in response to drought-stress. Our results showed that exogenous ABA application substantially enhanced pomegranate drought resistance by strengthening metabolic pathways, such as BRs synthesis, peroxisome biogenesis, photosynthesis and hemicelluloses synthesis. Furthermore, treatments with different ABA concentrations may provoke different transcriptional responses and, once the concentration exceeds the optimal (60 μM), it might induce some potential adverse impacts on plant growth and stress resistance.
Project description:Transcriptome analysis in cotton under drought stress. To study the molecular response of drought stress in cotton under field condition global gene expression analysis was carried out in leaf tissue. Gossypium hirsutum cv. Bikaneri Nerma was used for the gene expression analysis. Cotton plants were subjected to drought stress at peak flowering stage. Leaf samples were collected when the soil moisture content was 19.5% which is 50% of the normal control plots. Gene expression profiles in drought induced and their respective control samples were analyzed using Affymertix cotton Genechip Genome arrays to study the global changes in the expression of genome.
Project description:Under natural conditions, plants experience episodes of drought for periods of days or longer. Plants respond to drought stress by reconfiguring their transcriptome activity. Transcriptome changes in response to drought are dynamic, and are likely to be shaped by mitigating factors such as diel signals. To gain insights into the dynamics of transcriptome reconfiguration in response to gradual soil drying, the drought-induced transcriptomes of Arabidopsis thaliana were examined at four time points over a single diel period – midday, late day, midnight, and pre-dawn. A core set of genes was identified that was responsive to drought, independent of the time of day at which they were measured. Strikingly, the magnitude of the drought-induced changes for these genes varied in a time-of-day-dependent manner. An additional set of time-of-day-specific drought-responsive genes were also identified. The diurnal patterns of transcript accumulation for these genes was strongly influenced by drought stress. This study indicates that analysis of a single time point would miss suites of drought-responsive genes that are revealed through assessment of the dynamics of diurnal changes, emphasizing the value of characterizing multiple time-of-day-specific drought transcriptomes.
Project description:Transcriptome analysis in cotton under drought stress. To study the molecular response of drought stress in cotton under field condition global gene expression analysis was carried out in leaf tissue. Gossypium hirsutum cv. Bikaneri Nerma was used for the gene expression analysis. Cotton plants were subjected to drought stress at peak flowering stage. Leaf samples were collected when the soil moisture content was 19.5% which is 50% of the normal control plots. Gene expression profiles in drought induced and their respective control samples were analyzed using Affymertix cotton Genechip Genome arrays to study the global changes in the expression of genome. Total RNA was isolated from leaf tissue. Samples were collected from both drought induced and control plants. Biotin labeled cRNA was hybridized on Affymertix cotton Genechip Genome array following the Affymetrix protocols. Three biological replicates were maintained.