Differential Gene Expression of Pitaya Root Induced Under Flooding Stress

Key words: 
• Pitaya /
• flooding stress /
• transcriptome sequencing /
• differentially expressed gene

Abstract: The RNA-Seq sequencing technique was used to sequence the root system of pitaya under flooding stress,and the difference of gene expression between the flooded group and the control group was compared. The expression characteristics of the differentially expressed genes were analyzed and verified by qRT-PCR to explore the molecular mechanism of flooding stress and explore genes related to flooding tolerance. The results showed that there were 1 481 differentially expressed genes in the root system of pitaya under flooding stress,including 925 up-regulated genes and 556 down-regulated genes. Their functions were mainly enriched in sugar metabolism,carbon metabolism,nitrogen metabolism,ethanol metabolism,amino acid biosynthesis,phenylalanine metabolism,plant hormone signal transduction and so on. It can be seen that flooding stress has a great effect on the basic metabolism of pitaya root,but the root system of pitaya can provide the energy required for the survival of pitaya through glycolysis,ethanol fermentation and alanine fermentation to reduce the adverse effects of flooding stress on pitaya. And flooding stress induced ethylene synthesis to regulate the stress response of pitaya so that the pitaya showed a certain tolerance to flooding stress.