Mongolian Almond (Prunus mongolica Maxim): The Morpho-Physiological, Biochemical and Transcriptomic Response to Drought Stress

Abstract

Prunus mongolica Maxim, which is widely established in the Gobi Desert, shows extreme tolerance to drought. However, there is a lack of available transcriptomic resources for this species related to its response to water deficiency. To investigate the mechanisms that allow P. mongolica to maintain growth in extremely arid environments, the response of P. mongolica seedlings to drought stress was analyzed using morphological, physiological, biochemical and high-throughput sequencing approaches. We generated 28,713,735 and 26,650,133 raw reads from no-stress control and drought-stressed P. mongolica seedlings, respectively. In total, we obtained 67,352 transcripts with an average length of 874.44 bp. Compared with the no-stress control, 3,365 transcripts were differentially expressed in the drought-stressed seedlings, including 55.75% (1,876 transcripts) up-regulated and 44.25% (1,489 transcripts) down-regulated transcripts. The photosynthesis response showed a decreasing tendency under drought stress, but the changes in the levels of hormones (auxins, cytokinins and abscisic acid) resulted in the closing of stomata and decreased cell enlargement and division; these changes were effective for promoting P. mongolica survival in Gobi Desert. Next, we analyzed the aquaporin and superoxide dismutase gene families due to their importance in plant resistance to drought stress. We found that all of the plasma membrane intrinsic protein transcripts were down-regulated in the drought-stressed treatment, whereas drought did not affect the expression of nodulin intrinsic protein or small basic intrinsic protein transcripts in P. mongolica seedlings. In addition, activation of iron superoxide dismutase transcription and enhanced transcription of manganese superoxide dismutase were observed in P. mongolica to promote tolerance of drought stress. This study identified drought response genes in P. mongolica seedlings. Our results provide a significant contribution to the understanding of how P. mongolica responds to drought stress at the transcriptome level, which may help to elucidate molecular mechanisms associated with the drought response of almond plants.

Native Plants to Arid Areas: A Genetic Reservoir for Drought-Tolerant Crops

“…Also there were significant interactions of SOD, CAT, and POD activities and MDA content between months and species [78]. A transcriptomic study under drought stress showed that Prunus mongolica Maxim, a species widely distributed in the Gobi Desert, increased transcription of iron superoxide dismutase and manganese superoxide dismutase which promoted drought stress tolerance [31].…”

“…Plants' drought tolerance is a quantitative trait that is controlled by many genes with additive effects [28,29]. In native plants to arid areas such as Cynanchum komarovii and Prunus mongolica Maxim, more than 3000 differentially expressed genes (DEG) under drought stress have been found [30,31]. These genes and/or their products participate in at least two pathways involved in drought tolerance: ABA-dependent and ABAindependent pathways [25,32].…”

“…Several significant pathways were identified to be related to drought tolerance of P. mongolica. These pathways included transcription factors and plant hormone signal transduction, starch and sucrose metabolism, and cysteine and methionine metabolism [31].…”

Perubahan karakter biokimia dan fisiologi tanaman kacang hijau pada berbagai kondisi cekaman kekeringan

“…Pada kondisi cekaman kekeringan, tanaman meningkatkan daya tahannya baik secara morfologi, fisiologi, seluler maupun molekuler (Fang dan Xiong, 2015). Wang, et. al., (2015) menyatakan bahwa pada kondisi cekaman kekeringan, fotosintesis tanaman cenderung menurun, serta perubahan hormonal (auxin, sitokinin dan ABA) menyebabkan menutupnya stomata, mengurangi pembelahan dan pengembangan sel sebagai upaya adaptasi tanaman.…”

Peculiarities of the Latent Period of Prunus Mongolica Maxim. And P. Pedunculata (Pall.) Maxim.

“…Последние десятилетия остро встает вопрос об использовании ряда видов ко сточковых, с несъедобными плодами, в качестве источников жирного масла, ко торое в дальнейшем применяется как биотопливо (Popa et al, 2011;Arora, 2014;Dhyani et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015;Schinas et al, 2017). Во многих странах мира уделяют внимание разра ботке плантационного выращивания перспективных видов косточковых, том числе и из семян (Ger9ek9ioglu, Qekig, 1999;Martinez-Gomez, Dicenta, 2001;£etinba §, Koyuncu, 2005£etinba §, Koyuncu, , 2006Pipinis et al, 2012;Jianmin Chu et al, 2013;Souza et al, 2016).…”