Differential Gene Expression and Metabolic Pathway Analysis of Cladophora rupestris under Pb Stress Conditions

Lei Liu; Lusheng Zhang; Lingyun Zhao; Qiuyu Chen; Qian Zhang; Deju Cao; Zhaowen Liu

doi:10.3390/ijerph192113910

Differential Gene Expression and Metabolic Pathway Analysis of Cladophora rupestris under Pb Stress Conditions

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 26;19(21):13910. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113910.

Authors

Lei Liu¹, Lusheng Zhang¹, Lingyun Zhao¹, Qiuyu Chen¹, Qian Zhang¹, Deju Cao¹, Zhaowen Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Farmland Ecological Conservation and Pollution Prevention, School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China.
² School of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Chizhou University, Chizhou 247000, China.

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the transcriptome of C. rupestris under Pb²⁺ stress by using high-throughput sequencing technology, observe the changes of gene expression and metabolic pathway after three and five days under 1.0 and 5.0 mg/L of Pb²⁺ treatment, and analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and related functional genes after Pb²⁺ treatment. Metabolic pathways were revealed through Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. Results show that DEGs increased significantly with the increase of Pb²⁺ concentration and stress time. A total of 32 genes were closely related to Pb²⁺ stress response. GO analysis identified two major transporter proteins, namely, ATP-binding transport protein-related (ABC transporters) and zinc finger CCHC domain containing protein (Zfp) in C. rupestris. Pthr19248, pthr19211, Zfp pthr23002, Zfp p48znf pthr12681, Zfp 294 pthr12389, and Zfp pthr23067 played important roles against Pb²⁺ toxicity and its absorption in C. rupestris. KEGG pathway analysis suggested that ABCA1, ATM, and ABCD3 were closely related to Pb²⁺ absorption. Pb²⁺ stress was mainly involved in metallothionein (MT), plant hormone signal transduction, ABC transporters, and glutathione (GSH) metabolism.

Keywords: C. rupestris; DEGs; GSH; MT; Pb; transcriptome; transporter proteins.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters
Gene Expression Profiling* / methods
Lead*
Metabolic Networks and Pathways
Transcriptome

Substances

Lead
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters

Grants and funding

This work was carried out under the financial aid of the Natural Science Foundation of China (41877418), the Nature Fund of Anhui Province of China (1808085MD100), the Materials and Chemical Engineering First-class Undergraduate Talent Demonstration and Leading Base (2020rcsfjd28) and the Natural Science Foundation of the Higher Education Institutions of Anhui Province (KJ2021A1132, KJ2019A0865).