Physiological responses and transcriptional regulation of <i>Prunus mume</i> 'Meiren' under drought stress.

Zixu WANG; Chunyan LUO; Yuhang TONG; Weijun ZHENG; Qingwei LI

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Physiological responses and transcriptional regulation of Prunus mume 'Meiren' under drought stress.

Author: Zixu WANG ¹ ; Chunyan LUO ¹ ; Yuhang TONG ² ; Weijun ZHENG ² ; Qingwei LI ¹
Author Information

1. National Key Laboratory for Efficient Production of Forest Resources, School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.
2. Beijing Greenland Maintenance and Management Centre, Beijing 102211, China.
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: Prunus mume; drought stress; physiological characteristics; transcriptome
MeSH: Droughts; Photosynthesis/physiology*; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Stress, Physiological/genetics*; Prunus/genetics*; Chlorophyll/metabolism*; Plant Proteins/genetics*
From: Chinese Journal of Biotechnology 2025;41(2):618-638
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Prunus mume is an ecologically and economically valuable plant with both medicinal and edible values. However, drought severely limits the promotion and cultivation of P. mume in the arid and semi-arid areas in northern China. In this study, we treated P. mume 'Meiren' with natural drought and then assessed photosynthetic and physiological indexes such as osmoregulatory substances, photosynthetic parameters, and antioxidant enzyme activities. Furthermore, we employed transcriptome sequencing to explore the internal regulatory mechanism of P. mume under drought stress. As the drought stress aggravated, the levels of chlorophyll a (Chla), chlorophyll b (Chlb), chlorophyll (a+b)[Chl(a+b)], and soluble protein (SP) in P. mume first elevated and then declined. The net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration rate (Tr), maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm), effective photochemical quantum yield [Y(Ⅱ)], photochemical quenching (qP), and relative electron transport rate (ETR) all kept decreasing, while the levels of malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and osmoregulatory substances rose. Transcriptome sequencing revealed a total of 24 853 high-quality genes. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were the most under severe drought. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs during the four drought periods were mainly involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, plant-pathogen interaction, plant hormone signal transduction, starch and sucrose metabolism, and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways. Furthermore, we identified 16 key genes associated with the drought tolerance of P. mume 'Meiren'. This study discovered that P. mume might up-regulate or down-regulate the expression of drought tolerance-related genes such as SUS, P5CS, LEA, SOD, POD, SOD1, TPPD, and TPPA via transcription factors like MYB, ERF, bHLH, NAC, and WRKY to promote the accumulation of osmoregulatory substances like sucrose and enhance the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD and POD, thus reducing the harm of reactive oxygen species and protecting the structure and function of the membrane system under drought stress. The findings provide theoretical references for further exploration of candidate genes of P. mume in response to drought stress and breeding of drought-tolerant varieties.