Treatment with 0.5 mM salicylic acid (SA) significantly alleviated growth inhibition induced by drought in wheat seedlings, manifested by less decreassed fresh mass, dry mass, plant height, root length, and less increased lipid peroxidation. Under drought stress, SA significantly increased the content of ascorbate (ASA) and glutathione (GSH). We determined the full-length cDNA sequences of genes encoding the glutathione-S-transferase 1 (GST1) and 2 (GST2) and we also measured the transcription of eight genes related to ASA-GSH cycle. The results indicated that exogenous SA significantly enhanced the transcription of GST1, GST2, glutathione reductase (GR), and monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) genes during almost the entire drought period, but only increased those of dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) at 12 h, glutathione peroxidase (GPX1) at 48 h, phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase (GPX2) at 12 and 24 h, and glutathione synthetase (GSHS) at 12, 24, and 48 h. This implies that SA alleviates the detrimental effects of drought stress on wheat seedling growth by influencing the ASA-GSH cycle.

Intramuscular fat (IMF) plays an important role in meat quality due to its positive correlation with juiciness, tenderness, and flavor. However, for chickens, the molecular mechanisms underlying IMF deposition in thigh muscle have not yet been determined. Here, to identify candidate genes and signaling pathways related to IMF deposition, we deeply explored the chicken transcriptome from thigh muscles of Huangshan Black Chickens with extremely high and low phenotypic values for intramuscular fat content. A total of 128 genes differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected, of which 94 were up-regulated and 34 were down-regulated. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways revealed these DEGs (including FABP4, G0S2, PLIN1, SCD1, LFABP, SLC1A6, SLC45A3, ACSBG1, LY86, ST8SIA5, SNAI2, HPGD, EDN2, and THRSP) were significantly enriched in lipid biosynthetic process, steroid biosynthetic and metabolic process, fatty acid metabolic process, and regulation of unsaturated fatty acid metabolic pathways. Additionally, we concluded an interaction network related to lipid metabolism, which might be contributed to the IMF deposition in chicken. Overall, we proposed some new candidate genes and interaction networks that can be associated with IMF deposition and used as biomarkers in meat quality improvement.