Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Studies Disclose Key Metabolism Pathways Contributing to Well-maintained Photosynthesis under the Drought and the Consequent Drought-Tolerance in Rice

作者：Xiaosong Ma, Hui Xia, Yunhua Liu, Haibin Wei, Xiaoguo Zheng, Congzhi Song, Liang Chen, Hongyan Liu, Lijun Luo · 发表于：Frontiers in Plant Science · 年份：2016 · DOI：10.3389/fpls.2016.01886 · 被引用次数：167 · 研究领域：Plant Stress Responses and Tolerance、Plant responses to water stress、Rice Cultivation and Yield Improvement

In contrast to wild species, drought-tolerance in crops requires a fully functional metabolism during drought (particularly photosynthetic processes). However, the link between drought-tolerance, photosynthetic regulation during drought, and the associated transcript and metabolic foundation, remains largely unknown. For this study, we used two rice cultivars with contrasting drought-tolerance (the drought-intolerant cultivar IRAT109 and the drought-tolerant cultivar IAC1246) to explore transcript and metabolic responses to long-term drought. The drought-tolerant cultivar represented higher osmotic adjustment and antioxidant capacity, as well as higher relative photosynthesis rate under a progressive drought stress occurred in a modified field with shallow soil-layers. A total of 4059 and 2677 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in IRAT109 and IAC1246 between the drought and well-watered conditions, respectively. A total of 69 and 47 differential metabolites (DMs) were identified between the two treatments in IRAT109 and IAC1246, respectively. Compared to IRAT109, the DEGs of IAC1246 displayed enhanced regulatory amplitude during drought. We found significant correlations between DEGs and the osmolality and total antioxidant capacity (AOC) of both cultivars. During the early stages of drought, we detected up-regulation of DEGs in IAC1246 related to photosynthesis, in accordance with its higher relative photosynthesis rate. The contents of six differential me...