Transcriptome analysis in different chieh-qua cultivars provides new insights into drought-stress response

Drought, one of the crucial environmental constraints, seriously threats the quality and yield in chieh-qua. Therefore, cultivating drought-tolerant variety is greatly necessary for its normal growth under water deficiency. However, at present, molecular knowledge on drought resistance is mostly unclear in chieh-qua. In the study, characteristics of two diverse genetic chieh-qua variety, A39 (drought-resistance) and H5 (drought-sensitivity), were analyzed. Under drought stress, H5 exerted high water loss rate, increased malonaldehyde (MDA) content, and decreased enzyme activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) compared with A39. In addition, based on the transcriptome results, we obtained a total of 1821 (511 up-regulated and 1310 down-regulated) and 2114 (1282 up-regulated and 832 down- regulated) differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the A39 versus H5 under normal and water-deficiency stress, respectively. Several DEGs involved in the cuticle synthesis (cytochrome P450 genes: CYP94A2, CYP86B1, CYP86A7), carbohydrate metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction (small auxin-up RNA genes: SAUR32, SAUR72; JA-induced genes: TIFY 10A, TIFY 10C; ABA related genes: PYL2, PYL4) were explored and related to drought resistance. These expression patterns observed in the RNA-seq data were further confirmed with quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). In all, these results not only provided a new insight into analyzing genes of drought response, but also laid a foundation for isolating crucial genes involved in drought stress in chieh-qua.