Transcriptome, physiological and biochemical analysis of Triarrhena sacchariflora in response to flooding stress

Background In recent decades, the frequency of flooding is increasing with the change of global climate. Flooding has become one of the major abiotic stresses that seriously affect growth and development of plants. Triarrhena sacchariflora Nakai has been considered a promising energy crop for utilization in ethanol production. Flooding stress is among the most severe abiotic stressors in the production of Nakai. However, the physiological and molecular biological mechanisms of Nakai response to flooding is still unclear. In the present study, in order to understand the molecular mechanisms of Nakai in response to flooding stress, the transcriptome, physiological and biochemical were investigated. Results The results demonstrated that significant physiological changes were observed in photosynthetic system, antioxidative enzyme activity, chlorophyll, carotenoid, proline, lipid peroxidation and soluble sugar content under normal and flooding treatments. Such as, the chlorophyll, carotenoid contents and photosynthetic system were significantly decreased. Whereas, the antioxidative enzyme activity, proline, lipid peroxidation and soluble sugar has increased first and then decreased under treatments compared with the normal plants. Additionally, a total of 8832, 6608 and 3649 unigenes were validated to be differentially expressed under different treatments, respectively. Besides, gene ontology enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis of the different expression levels of genes also presented processes, which involved in photosynthesis, sucrose catabolism, glycolysis, stress response and defense, phytohormone biosynthesis and signal transduction. Conclusions The results provide a comprehensive view of the complex molecular events involved in the response to flooding stress of Nakai leaves, which also will promote the research in the development of flood-resistant crops and provide new tools for Nakai breeders.