Exogenous application of melatonin may contribute to enhancement of soybean drought tolerance via its effects on glucose metabolism

Abstract

Sugar metabolism is among the most important metabolic processes in soybean; it not only affects growth and development, but also plays a role in drought resistance. As a plant biological regulator, exogenous melatonin is assumed to regulate sugar metabolism. Here, physiological and transcriptomic approaches were used to determine the effects of melatonin on physiological indices and key genes and pathways associated with soybean sugar metabolism under drought stress. In plants subjected to drought stress, melatonin treatment increased dry matter accumulation, reduced malondialdehyde content, and increased the content of metabolized sugars in leaves, thereby enhancing soybean yield. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the genes differentially expressed in plants subjected to melatonin treatment and drought stress were enriched in the KEGG “sucrose and starch metabolism” pathway related to glucose metabolism. Among the differentially expressed genes, we identified 12 significantly altered genes associated with glucose metabolism that played roles in regulating the activities of glucose metabolism-related enzymes. Collectively, our results indicated that melatonin can enhance the output of glucose metabolites and tolerance of soybean subjected to drought stress by regulating the genes associated with glucose metabolism and activation of the related enzymes. Our findings provide a detailed theoretical basis for analyzing the regulatory effects of melatonin on soybean sugar metabolism under conditions of drought stress.

Keywords:

• Soybean
• sugar metabolism
• transcriptome
• production
• melatonin

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Cao Liang and Zhang Yuxian for their support and the platform provided by Soybean Research Group of Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University.

Authors’ contributions

Q.B. and L.C. conceived the study and designed and managed the experiments, and performed the trials and collected the data, completed the statistical analysis of the phenotypic data and wrote the paper, Yu Xian Zhang provided the experimental platform and financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Research Initiation Plan for Talent Introduction (XYB202011); Research Initiation Plan for Talent Introduction (XYB202011); China Agriculture Research System (CARS-04-01A); Key Scientif-eic Research Projects of Heilongjiang Farms and Land Reclamation administration (HKKY190206-1); Applied Technology Research and Development Project of Heilongjiang Province (No. GA19B101-02).