De novo transcriptome analysis for exploration of genes responding to salinity in a halophyte New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides)

• Published in: Plant biotechnology reports Vol. 16; no. 6; pp. 741 - 755
• Main Authors: Kaur, Chetan, Kanth, Bashistha Kumar, Lee, Ka Youn, Kumari, Shipra, Lee, Geung-Joo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Nature Singapore 01.12.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abscisic acid; Agriculture; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Cell Biology; Chemical analysis; Expressed sequence tags; Genes; Halophytes; Ion transport; Land reclamation; Life Sciences; Medicinal plants; Metabolites; Original Article; Pectin; Photosynthesis; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Sciences; Plant species; Plants (botany); Salinity; Salinity effects; Salinity tolerance; Salt tolerance; Scavenging; Seawater; Senescence; Signal transduction; Spinach; Tetragonia tetragonioides; Transcriptomes; Vegetables; Water analysis; New Zealand; Halophyte; Transcriptome analysis; Salt-stress response; De novo assembly; New Zealand spinach
• ISSN: 1863-5466; 1863-5474
• DOI: 10.1007/s11816-022-00800-x

New Zealand spinach ( Tetragonia tetragonioides ) is a coastal plant species with a variety of medicinal uses in Korea. Due to its salt-tolerant capabilities, land reclamation using coastal plants such as Tetragonia have been widely employed. So far, the information about the dynamics or differentially expressed genes related to salt response in New Zealand spinach (NZS) is scarce. We analyzed the expressed sequence tags of the seawater-treated NZS, to identify key genes and pathways involved in salt tolerance. Our results indicated that the salt responsive DEGs were related to ion transport, signal transduction and secondary metabolite synthesis. Further analysis of the transcriptome profile of NZS subjected to seawater treatment highlighted the roles in scavenging and abscisic acid signal transduction. The DEGs, regulating pectin remodeling and ROS scavenging may be the key genes for NZS to adapt to salinity environment. Furthermore, genes such as senescence-associated genes (SAGs) that are highly upregulated in glycophytes during salt stress were downregulated in NZS. Similarly, during abiotic stresses the transcription of genes involved in photosynthesis is severely reduced, but the transcripts of light responsive factors in NZS were slightly downregulated, showing the efficiency of the salt regulation mechanism in NZS. This study represents the first large-scale transcriptome analysis of New Zealand spinach. Elucidating the salt tolerant properties of halophytes can provide novel findings to enhance the salt sensitive plants. Our findings could further help the understanding of the stress tolerance mechanisms in plants in general and New Zealand Spinach can be used as a halophytic model in stress-tolerance studies.