Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals the Involvement of Auxin Signaling in the Heat Tolerance of Pakchoi under High-Temperature Stress

oleh: Bing Yang, Yaosong Chen, Xiaofeng Li, Lu Gao, Liming Miao, Yishan Song, Dingyu Zhang, Hongfang Zhu

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2024-07-01

Deskripsi

Pakchoi is a kind of nonheading Chinese cabbage being widely cultivated not only in China but also all over Asia. High temperature is a major limiting factor influencing the yield and quality of pakchoi, while the mechanism of pakchoi dealing with high-temperature challenges remains largely elusive. In the present study, we conducted a comparative transcriptomic analysis, which was also validated by qPCR, of the heat-tolerant Xinxiaqing (XXQ) variant and Suzhouqing (SZQ) variant, which are heat-sensitive under high-temperature treatment. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses suggest that high-temperature-induced phytohormones signal transduction, especially auxin signal transduction, regulates the heat responses of pakchoi. Our further investigations imply that high-temperature-activated auxin signal plays a positive role in helping pakchoi deal with high-temperature challenge; IAA-pretreated pakchoi plants exhibited greater resistance to the high-temperature treatment, probably due to the induction of antioxidant activity. In addition, our study also identified six heat shock proteins/factors (HSPs/HSFs) whose up-regulation correlates with the elevated heat tolerance of pakchoi. Notably, among these high-temperature-induced heat-responsive factors, <i>HSP20</i> and <i>HSP26.5</i> are under the regulation of auxin signal, and this signal cascade contributes to enhancing the thermostability of pakchoi. In the present study, we identified crucial high-temperature-responsive factors and signaling pathways in pakchoi, which help in understanding the mechanism of pakchoi coping with high-temperature challenge.