Transcriptome Analysis of a Jujube (Ziziphus Jujuba Mill.) Cultivar Response to Heat Stress

Abstract

Abstract Background: Heat stress (HS) is a common stress and influences the growth and reproduction of plant species. We found and bred a putative heat-resistant jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) cultivar (JHR17) in previous study. Results: In the current study, we made the seedlings of ‘JHR17’ cultivar to be under HS (45°C) for 0, 1, 3, 5 and 7 days, respectively, and the leaf samples (HR0, HR1, HR3, HR5 and HR7) were collected accordingly. Fifteen cDNA libraries from ‘JHR17’ leaves were built with a transcriptome assay. The RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and transcriptome comparisons were performed, and the results indicated that 1642, 4080, 5160 and 2119 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in HR1 vs. HR0, HR3 vs. HR0, HR5 vs. HR0 and HR7 vs. HR0, respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) analyses of the DEGs from these comparisons were implemented. Conclusion: It revealed that a series of biological processes, involved in stress response, photosynthesis and metabolism, were enriched successfully, suggesting that lowering or up-regulating these genes of processes might play important roles in response to HS. This study may contribute to understand the molecular mechanism of ‘JHR17’ cultivar response to HS, and be beneficial for developing jujube cultivars to improve heat resistance.