Molecular mechanism of naringenin regulation on flavonoid biosynthesis to improve the salt tolerance in pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (Linn.) Millsp.)

Flavonoids are important secondary metabolites in the plant growth and development process. As a medicinal plant, pigeon pea is rich in secondary metabolites. As a flavonoid, there are few studies on the regulation mechanism of naringenin in plant stress resistance. In our study, we found that naringenin can increase the pigeon pea???s ability to tolerate salt and influence the changes that occur in flavonoids including naringenin, genistein and biochanin A. We analyzed the transcriptome data after 1 mM naringenin treatment, and identified a total of 13083 differentially expressed genes. By analyzing the metabolic pathways of these differentially expressed genes, we found that these differentially expressed genes were enriched in the metabolic pathways of phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, starch and sucrose metabolism and so on. We focused on the analysis of flavonoid biosynthesis related pathways. Among them, the expression levels of enzyme genes CcIFS, CcCHI and CcCHS in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway had considerably higher expression levels. By counting the number of transcription factors and the binding sites on the promoter of the enzyme gene, we screened the transcription factors CcMYB62 and CcbHLH35 related to flavonoid metabolism. Among them, CcMYB62 has a higher expression level than the others. The hairy root transgene showed that CcMYB62 could induce the upregulation of CcCHI, and promote the accumulation of naringenin, genistein and biochanin A. Our study revealed the molecular mechanism of naringenin regulating flavonoid biosynthesis under salt stress in pigeon pea, and pro-vided an idea for the role of flavonoids in plant resistance to abiotic stresses.

Automated summary

In this study, it was found that naringenin can enhance the salt tolerance of pigeon pea and affect the changes in flavonoids. Transcriptome analysis identified 13083 differentially expressed genes, which were enriched in metabolic pathways such as phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, starch, and sucrose metabolism. The expression levels of enzyme genes CcIFS, CcCHI, and CcCHS in flavonoid biosynthesis pathway were significantly higher. Transcription factors CcMYB62 and CcbHLH35 were found to be related to flavonoid metabolism, with CcMYB62 showing higher expression level. CcMYB62 induced the upregulation of CcCHI and promoted the accumulation of naringenin, genistein, and biochanin A.