Cassava is an important starchy and food crop; however, the commercial value of cassava is seriously constrained by postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD). In this study, the molecular mechanism underlying PPD was studied by comparative physiological and transcriptomic analyses. Physiological analyses indicated that the contents of H₂O₂ and malondialdehyde (MDA), and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) all increased along with PPD development. Further transcriptomic analysis investigated the distribution of the differential expression profiling and identified a total of 10,347 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during PPD. Notably, most of the genes encoding antioxidant enzymes and protein kinases showed significant upregulation at transcriptional levels, indicating the activation of antioxidant system and kinase-mediated signaling pathway during the PPD process. In addition, the genes involved in the starch synthesis pathway were repressed, whereas the genes associated with the starch degradation pathway were induced, thus leading to a decrease in starch content during the PPD process. Together, this study yields new insight into the transcriptional regulation network during the PPD process and provides potential gene resources for the delay of PPD in cassava.

木薯是重要的淀粉和粮食作物。然而，木薯的商业价值受到采后生理恶化（PPD）的严重制约。在这项研究中，通过比较生理和转录组分析研究了PPD的分子机制。生理分析表明，H ₂ O ₂的含量和丙二醛（MDA），以及超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）和过氧化氢酶（CAT）的活性都随着PPD的发展而增加。进一步的转录组分析研究了差异表达谱的分布，并确定了PPD期间共有10,347个差异表达基因（DEG）。值得注意的是，大多数编码抗氧化酶和蛋白激酶的基因在转录水平上均表现出明显的上调，​​表明在PPD过程中抗氧化系统和激酶介导的信号通路的激活。另外，淀粉合成途径中涉及的基因被抑制，而与淀粉降解途径相关的基因被诱导，从而导致PPD过程中淀粉含量的减少。一起，