Transcriptome profiles of Quercus rubra responding to increased O₃ stress

Area of Science:

• Forestry
• Plant Science
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Climate change increases ozone (O3) formation, impacting forest health.
• Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) (NRO) productivity is known to decrease with O3 exposure.
• Limited data exists on NRO's gene expression responses to environmental stressors like O3.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the genomic response of NRO seedlings to ozone (O3) stress.
• To establish a reference transcriptome for NRO.
• To identify key metabolic pathways affected by O3 exposure at the gene expression level.

Main Methods:

• RNA sequencing was performed on NRO seedlings exposed to O3.
• De novo assembly was used to generate unigenes.
• Differential gene expression analysis (DEGs) and enrichment analyses (GO, KEGG) were conducted.

Main Results:

• Over 323 million high-quality RNA sequencing reads were obtained, assembling into 52,662 unigenes.
• A total of 4140 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in response to O3 stress.
• Ozone stress perturbed key metabolic pathways, including energy, lipid, amino acid, carbohydrate, and terpenoid metabolism, and plant-pathogen interactions.

Conclusions:

• This research presents the first reference transcriptome for NRO.
• Gene expression profiling provides insights into NRO's genomic response to O3.
• O3 exposure alters primary and secondary metabolism in NRO, including defense responses like terpenoid biosynthesis.