Transcriptome analysis of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) shoots reveals a crosstalk between auxin and strigolactone

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 25;13(7):e0201124. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201124. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Auxin and strigolactone (SL) are two important phytohormones involved in shoot branching and morphology. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), a member of the Solanaceae family, is one of the most popular food crops with high economic value in the world. To seek a better understanding of the responses to exogenous hormones, transcriptome analyses of the tomato shoots treated with exogenous auxin and SL, separately or together, were performed. A total of 2326, 260 and 1379 differential expressed genes (DEGs) were identified under the IAA, GR24 and IAA+GR24 treatments, respectively. Network analysis pointed out two enriched interaction clusters, including "ethylene biosynthesis" and "photosynthesis". Several ethylene biosynthesis and metabolism-related genes were up-regulated under both IAA and IAA+GR24 treatments, suggesting their involvement in the regulation of ethylene biosynthesis. Besides, auxin-SLs-triggered the expression of several CAB genes may lead to systemic increases in the induction of photosynthesis. Several auxin-activated metabolic pathways could be reduced by the GR24 treatment, indicated that the crosstalk between auxin and SLs may be involved in the metabolic regulation of tomato. Further analysis showed that SLs affect the responses of tomato shoots to auxin by inducing the expression of a series of auxin downstream genes. On the other hand, auxin regulated the biosynthesis of SLs by affecting the genes in the "Carotenoid biosynthesis" pathway. Our data will give us an opportunity to reveal the crosstalk between auxin and SLs in the shoots of tomato.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / drug effects
  • Indoleacetic Acids / metabolism*
  • Indoleacetic Acids / pharmacology
  • Plant Growth Regulators / metabolism*
  • Plant Growth Regulators / pharmacology
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism*
  • Plant Shoots / drug effects
  • Plant Shoots / metabolism*
  • Seedlings / drug effects
  • Seedlings / metabolism
  • Solanum lycopersicum / drug effects
  • Solanum lycopersicum / metabolism*
  • Transcriptome* / drug effects

Substances

  • Indoleacetic Acids
  • Plant Growth Regulators
  • Plant Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31701967) (CY), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant No. LQ17C150003) (CY), the young talent training project of Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2016R23R08E05) (CY), and the Research Project of seed and seedling of Wenzhou City (No. Z20160009) (LZ). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.