Transcriptome and Proteome Analysis Identifies Salt Stress Response Genes in Bottle Gourd Rootstock-Grafted Watermelon Seedlings

Abstract

Soil salinization poses a huge challenge to the development of agriculture and seriously decreases crop yield and quality. In recent years, grafting has become one of the key agronomic techniques used to enhance plant abiotic stress tolerance. In this study, we found that watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai] grafted onto bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria Standl.) significantly enhanced salt tolerance. Transcriptome analysis revealed that a total of 8462 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and the number of up- and down-regulated genes were 3207 and 5255, respectively. The DEGs in the bottle gourd rootstock-grafted plants were mainly involved in carbon metabolism, photosynthesis, and plant hormone signal transduction. Furthermore, proteome analysis identified 28 differently expressed proteins (DEPs) in bottle gourd rootstock-grafted plants under salt stress. These DEPs were closely associated with amino acid and protein synthesis, photosynthesis, mitochondrial metabolism and carbon metabolism, and stress defense. Combined transcriptome and proteome analyses showed that salt stress-responded genes in bottle gourd rootstock-grafted watermelon seedlings were mainly involved in plant hormone signal transduction, photosynthesis, and amino acid synthesis pathways.

Integrative Physiological, Transcriptome, and Proteome Analyses Provide Insights into the Photosynthetic Changes in Maize in a Maize–Peanut Intercropping System

“…The detailed processes of chromatography and LC-MS/MS were conducted following Wang's method [22]. A Q-Exactive mass spectrometer (Thermo, MA, USA) was used in the separation according to Uniprot_Maize_87279_20150928.Fasta, using Proteome Discoverer 1.4 software to analyze the raw data (http://www.uniprot.org/, downloaded 28 September 2015).…”

“…A Q-Exactive mass spectrometer (Thermo, MA, USA) was used in the separation according to Uniprot_Maize_87279_20150928.Fasta, using Proteome Discoverer 1.4 software to analyze the raw data (http://www.uniprot.org/, downloaded 28 September 2015). The identified peptides were matched with proteins using Wang's method [22]. The ratio between the 2 treatments was used to calculate the fold changes in T2 vs. T1.…”

“…The genes and proteins involved in reproductive growth among rice varieties were differentially expressed under cold stress, and the translation regulation mechanism played an important role in the tolerance of rice to low-temperature stress [ 21 ]. Another interesting experiment using a combination of transcriptome and proteome analyses confirmed that grafting watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ) as a scion onto a wax gourd ( Lagenaria siceraria ) can increase the salt tolerance of watermelon through changes in plant hormone signal transduction, amino acid synthesis, and photosynthesis [ 22 ]. Schmolinger et al conducted a study on photosynthesis using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a model organism.…”

The Time-Resolved Salt Stress Response of Dunaliella tertiolecta—A Comprehensive System Biology Perspective

“…Several proteomic and transcriptomic analyses have identified important proteins that were upregulated in D. salina after salt stress, such as Na + /H + antiporter, transferrin, carbonic anhydrases, tubulin, heat-shock proteins, and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3pdh) [16][17][18][19]. Generally, the most upregulated genes and proteins were related to photosynthesis, amino acid and protein synthesis, carbon fixation, starch hydrolysis, and glycerol synthesis [15,16,20].…”