Integration of transcriptome and metabolome analyses reveals sorghum roots responding to cadmium stress through regulation of the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway

Zhiyin Jiao; Yannan Shi; Jinping Wang; Zhifang Wang; Xing Zhang; Xinyue Jia; Qi Du; Jingtian Niu; Bocheng Liu; Ruiheng Du; Guisu Ji; Junfeng Cao; Peng Lv

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1144265

Integration of transcriptome and metabolome analyses reveals sorghum roots responding to cadmium stress through regulation of the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Feb 23:14:1144265. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1144265. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zhiyin Jiao¹, Yannan Shi¹, Jinping Wang¹, Zhifang Wang¹, Xing Zhang¹, Xinyue Jia¹, Qi Du¹, Jingtian Niu¹, Bocheng Liu¹, Ruiheng Du¹, Guisu Ji¹, Junfeng Cao², Peng Lv¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Millet Crops, Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences/ Hebei Branch of National Sorghum Improvement center/ Key Laboratory of Genetic Improvement and Utilization for Featured Coarse Cereals (Co-construction by Ministry and Province), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/ Key Laboratory of Minor Cereal Crops of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang, China.
² Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (South), Ministry of Agriculture, Plant Biotechnology Research Center, Fudan-SJTU-Nottingham Plant Biotechnology R&D Center, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) pollution is a serious threat to plant growth and human health. Although the mechanisms controlling the Cd response have been elucidated in other species, they remain unknown in Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), an important C₄ cereal crop. Here, one-week-old sorghum seedlings were exposed to different concentrations (0, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 150 μM) of CdCl₂ and the effects of these different concentrations on morphological responses were evaluated. Cd stress significantly decreased the activities of the enzymes peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and catalase (CAT), and increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, leading to inhibition of plant height, decreases in lateral root density and plant biomass production. Based on these results, 10 μM Cd concentration was chosen for further transcription and metabolic analyses. A total of 2683 genes and 160 metabolites were found to have significant differential abundances between the control and Cd-treated groups. Multi-omics integrative analysis revealed that the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway plays a critical role in regulating Cd stress responses in sorghum. These results provide new insights into the mechanism underlying the response of sorghum to Cd.

Keywords: cadmium stress; flavonoid biosynthesis; metabolome; physiological; sorghum bicolor; transcriptome.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the China Agriculture Reseach System (CARS-06-14.5-B5), Modern Agriculture Research System of Hebei Province (HBCT2018070204), HAAFS Basic Science and Technology Contract Project (HBNKY-BGZ-02) and Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province for Youths, China (No. C2022301063).