Transcriptomic responses of Saccharum spontaneum roots in response to polyethylene glycol-6000 stimulated drought stress

Drought is the abiotic factor that adversely affects plant growth, development survival, and crop productivity, posing a substantial threat to sustainable agriculture worldwide, especially in warm and dry areas. However, the extent of damage depends upon the crop growth stage, severity and frequency of the stress. In general, the reproductive growth phase is more sensitive to stresses causing a substantial loss in crop productivity. Saccharum spontaneum (L.) is the most variable wild relative of sugarcane with potential for use in sugarcane crop improvement programs. In the present study addresses the transcriptomic analysis of drought stress imposed by polyethylene glycol-6000 (PED-6000; w/v- 25%) on the root tip tissues of S. spontaneum GX83-10. The analysis of microarrays of drought-stressed roots was performed at 0 (CK), 2 (T-2), 4 (T-4), 8 (T-8) and 24 h (T-24). The analyzed data were compared with the gene function annotations of four major databases, such as Nr, KOG/COG, Swiss-Prot, and KEGG, and a total of 62,988 single-gene information was obtained. The differently expressed genes of 56237 (T-4), 59319 (T-8), and 58583 (T-24), among which CK obtained the most significant number of expressed genes (35920) as compared to T-24, with a total of 53683 trend genes. Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG analysis were performed on the 6 important trends, and a total of 598 significant GO IDs and 42 significantly enriched metabolic pathways. Furthermore, these findings also aid in the selection of novel genes and promoters that can be used to potentially produce crop plants with enhanced stress resistance efficiency for sustainable agriculture.

Automated summary

Drought is a significant threat to sustainable agriculture worldwide, affecting plant growth, development, and crop productivity. This study conducted transcriptomic analysis to investigate the effects of drought stress on a wild relative of sugarcane and identified several important differentially expressed genes.