April 2022: Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Sweet Sorghum with Different Salt Tolerances

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We have the following study by Chen et al. (2022) as our featured project this month. This study conducted transcriptomics analysis to identify the salt tolerant mechanisms in Sorghum plants subjected to NaCl treatments. We hope you enjoy reading our selected study and please stay safe and healthy!

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PhotosynQ Team

Chengxuan Chen, Xiaoling Shang, Meiyu Sun, Sanyuan Tang, Aimal Khan, Dan Zhang, Hongdong Yan, Yanxi Jiang, Feifei Yu, Yaorong Wu, and Qi Xie

Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Two Sweet Sorghum Genotypes with Different Salt Tolerance Abilities to Reveal the Mechanism of Salt Tolerance

International Journal of Molecular Sciences https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23042272

Soil salinity is one of the most devastating factors in soil degradation and desertification as salt stress limits crop growth and reduces productivity.

Chen et al. (2022) used RNA-seq technology to compare the transcriptomes of sweet sorghum inbred lines RIO (salt-tolerant) and SN005 (salt-sensitive) under salt stress.

They used a MultispeQ to measure Pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM) fluorometry and relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) of salt treated plants.

Figure 1 The plant responses to NaCl stress. (A) Appearance at 15 days since treatment. (B) Relative dry weight at 7 days since treatment. (C) PSII efficiency (ΦPSII) at 7 days after treatment. (D) Relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) at 7 days after treatment. Means ± SE for each measurement. Means with different lowercase letters are significantly different at p < 0.05 (DNMRT).

According to Figure 1 (above):

ΦPSII is significantly higher in salt tolerant RIO at high salt stress (200 and 250 mM of NaCl).

SPAD is significantly higher in salt tolerant RIO at the highest salt stress imposed (250 mM of NaCl).

According to Figure 2 (below) and other figures given in the article,

It is clear that RIO and SN005 have differential gene expression when subjected to salt stress.

Figure 2. Quantitative RT-PCR validation of 12 differentially expressed genes. The RNA seq results are also displayed on the graphs.

This study highlights the correlation of MultispeQ-derived chlorophyll fluorescence and ΦPSII parameters with salt tolerance in crops. This means that these parameters can be used as biomarkers for screening crops and performing remedial actions.

This study also highlights the usefulness of MultispeQ as a phenomic tool in functional genomic characterization studies.