Temporal physiological, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses revealed molecular mechanism ofCanna indica’s response to Cr stress

Abstract

AbstractChromium (Cr) can interfere with plant gene expression, change the content of metabolites and affect plant growth. However, the molecular response mechanism of wetland plants at different time sequences under Cr stress has yet to be fully understood.The results showed that Cr stress increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and peroxidase (POD), the contents of glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA), and oxygen free radical (ROS), and inhibited the biosynthesis of photosynthetic pigments, thus leading to changes in plant growth and biomass. that Cr stress mainly affected 12 metabolic pathways, involving 38 differentially expressed metabolites, including amino acids, phenylpropane, and flavonoids. A total of 16247 differentially expressed genes were identified, among which, at the early stage of stress,C. indicaresponds to Cr toxicity mainly through galactose, starch and sucrose metabolism. With the extension of stress time, plant hormone signal transduction and MAPK signaling pathway inC. indicain the treatment group were significantly affected. Finally, in the late stage of stress,C. indicaco-defuses Cr toxicity by activating its Glutathione metabolism and Phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. In conclusion, this study revealed the molecular response mechanism ofC. indicato Cr stress at different times through multi-omics methods.Graphical Abstract