Physiological Characteristics and Transcriptome Analysis of Exogenous Brassinosteroid-Treated Kiwifruit
Brassinosteroids (BRs) play pivotal roles in improving plant stress tolerance. To investigate the mechanism of BR regulation of salt tolerance in kiwifruit, we used ‘Hongyang’ kiwifruit as the test material. We exposed the plants to 150 mmol/L NaCl stress and irrigated them with exogenous BR (2,4-ep...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/24/17252 |
| Summary: | Brassinosteroids (BRs) play pivotal roles in improving plant stress tolerance. To investigate the mechanism of BR regulation of salt tolerance in kiwifruit, we used ‘Hongyang’ kiwifruit as the test material. We exposed the plants to 150 mmol/L NaCl stress and irrigated them with exogenous BR (2,4-epibrassinolide). The phenotypic analysis showed that salt stress significantly inhibited photosynthesis in kiwifruit, leading to a significant increase in the H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> content of leaves and roots and a significant increase in Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup>, resulting in oxidative damage and an ion imbalance. BR treatment resulted in enhanced photosynthesis, reduced H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> content, and reduced Na<sup>+</sup>/K<sup>+</sup> in leaves, alleviating the salt stress injury. Furthermore, transcriptome enrichment analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) related to BR treatment are involved in pathways such as starch and sucrose metabolism, pentose and glucuronate interconversions, and plant hormone signal transduction, among others. Among the DEGs involved in plant hormone signal transduction, those with the highest expression were involved in abscisic acid signal transduction. Moreover, there was a significant increase in the expression of the <i>AcHKT1</i> gene, which regulates ion transduction, and the antioxidant enzyme <i>AcFSD2</i> gene, which is a key gene for improving salt tolerance. The data suggest that BRs can improve salt tolerance by regulating ion homeostasis and reducing oxidative stress. |
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| ISSN: | 1661-6596 1422-0067 |