Transcriptome analyses revealed chilling response genes in mango (Mangifera indica L. cv. Keitt) leaf

ABSTRACT

Mangifera indica L. cv. Keitt is a cold-stress fruit plant native to China's drought river valley. Chilling stress affects productivity. Understanding the mechanisms of chilling stress is important to increasing chilling resistance in mango. Leaves of Keitti were subjected to 4 °C for 0, 3, 6, and 9 h for RNA-Seq-based transcriptome analysis, respectively. The chlorophyll content, carotenoid content, catalase, and peroxidase activities significantly increased during 9 h. The leaves responded to the stress by enhancing photosynthetic pigment content and antioxidant enzyme activity. After 3 h of chilling, 410 genes were differentially expressed. WRKY70 and PLD1 were significantly up-regulated after 9 h. Compared to 9 and 0 h, there were 1123 DEG. The DEGs are enriched in hormonal signal transduction, secondary metabolites, and the abiotic stress response. Similarly, the transcriptional factor families including NCED2, MYB73, and HLH162 up-regulated. The study will promote research on the development of chill-resistant mangoes.

KEYWORDS:

• Chilling stress
• Mangifera indica L. cv. Keitt
• stress response
• Gene expression and transcriptional factors

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Chinese Academy Tropical Agricultural Science, and Sichuan Agricultural University for supporting this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

MOA wrote and revised the manuscript, and performed parts of the experiments. AG and JM designed the experiments, analyzed the data, organized the figures, and critically revised the manuscript. RL, JH, ZZ and YW performed parts of experiments, analyzed the data, and revised the paper.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

It was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1000504), China Agriculture Research System CARS-31) and the Key Research and Development Project of Hainan Province (ZDYF2020052). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Notes on contributors

Mark Owusu Adjei

Mark Owusu Adjei is a Dr. of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, and Postdoctoral Fellow at the College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan

Jun Ma

Jun Ma is a Professor of Plant Physiology and Biotechnology, at College of Landscape Architecture, in Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Ruixiong Luo

Ruixiong Luo is a Dr. from Tropical Agricultural Sciences Crop and Gene Resources and Germplasm Enhancement, in Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute.

Jianfeng Huang

Jianfeng Huang is a Dr. from Tropical Agricultural Sciences Crop and Gene Resources and Germplasm Enhancement, in Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute.

Zhichang Zhao

Zhichang Zhao is a Dr. from Tropical Agricultural Sciences Crop and Gene Resources and Germplasm Enhancement, in Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute.

Yingying Wang

Yingying Wang is a Dr. from Tropical Agricultural Sciences Crop and Gene Resources and Germplasm Enhancement, in Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute.

Aiping Gao

Aiping Gao is a Professor at the Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences& Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Enhancement in Southern China, Haikou - Hainan, China.