Multi-Omics Analysis Reveals the Adaptive Responses of Lycoris aurea to Arid Stress

Understanding how plants respond to water limitation is increasingly important under accelerating climate change. Lycoris aurea, a widely distributed ornamental and medicinal bulbous plant, frequently inhabits environments with fluctuating soil moisture, yet its molecular drought-response mechanisms remain largely unexplored. In this study, we investigated L. aurea growing under field-based, in situ soil moisture regimes, comparing low (~20% soil water content) and high (~40% soil water content) conditions. We combined soil property assessments with high-resolution transcriptomic and untargeted metabolomic profiling to characterize the adaptive responses of bulb tissues under contrasting soil water conditions. Although total nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels were comparable across treatments, soil moisture, representing the primary contrasting field condition, and soil pH, a correlated environmental factor, were significantly associated with variation in gene expression and metabolite accumulation (p < 0.05, n = 3). Transcriptome analyses identified a total of 1034 differentially expressed genes enriched in pathways related to amino acid metabolism, cuticle formation, cell wall modification, and osmotic adjustment. Metabolomic analysis identified a total of 1867 differentially expressed metabolites belonging to carboxylic acids and prenol lipids, showing alterations involved in amino acids, lipids, phenolic acids, and alkaloids associated with osmoprotection, membrane stabilization, and structural reinforcement under low soil moisture. Pathway-based integration analysis highlighted four core pathways, including "alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism" (p = 0.00371) and "cutin, suberine and wax biosynthesis" (p = 0.00873), as central hubs linking transcriptional regulation with metabolic reconfiguration. Gene-metabolite-soil correlation networks further demonstrated that drought adaptation arises from tightly coordinated biochemical and structural adjustments rather than shifts in nutrient acquisition. Together, this species-specific study provides a comprehensive multi-omics framework for understanding drought tolerance in L. aurea, reveals key molecular targets associated with plant resilience, and offers potential targets and insights for the conservation of drought-resilient Lycoris cultivars.