Abstract

Sugar metabolism is among the most important metabolic processes in soybean; it not only affects growth and development, but also plays a role in drought resistance. As a plant biological regulator, exogenous melatonin is assumed to regulate sugar metabolism. Here, physiological and transcriptomic approaches were used to determine the effects of melatonin on physiological indices and key genes and pathways associated with soybean sugar metabolism under drought stress. In plants subjected to drought stress, melatonin treatment increased dry matter accumulation, reduced malondialdehyde content, and increased the content of metabolized sugars in leaves, thereby enhancing soybean yield. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the genes differentially expressed in plants subjected to melatonin treatment and drought stress were enriched in the KEGG “sucrose and starch metabolism” pathway related to glucose metabolism. Among the differentially expressed genes, we identified 12 significantly altered genes associated with glucose metabolism that played roles in regulating the activities of glucose metabolism-related enzymes. Collectively, our results indicated that melatonin can enhance the output of glucose metabolites and tolerance of soybean subjected to drought stress by regulating the genes associated with glucose metabolism and activation of the related enzymes. Our findings provide a detailed theoretical basis for analyzing the regulatory effects of melatonin on soybean sugar metabolism under conditions of drought stress.

摘要

糖代谢是大豆中最重要的代谢过程之一。它不仅影响生长发育，而且还起到抗旱作用。作为植物生物调节剂，外源性褪黑激素被假定为调节糖代谢。在这里，生理学和转录组学方法用于确定褪黑激素对干旱胁迫下与大豆糖代谢相关的生理指标和关键基因和途径的影响。在遭受干旱胁迫的植物中，褪黑激素处理增加了干物质积累，降低了丙二醛含量，并增加了叶片中代谢糖的含量，从而提高了大豆产量。转录组分析显示，褪黑素处理和干旱胁迫的植物中差异表达的基因富集在与葡萄糖代谢相关的KEGG“蔗糖和淀粉代谢”途径中。在差异表达的基因中，我们确定了 12 个显着改变的与葡萄糖代谢相关的基因，这些基因在调节葡萄糖代谢相关酶的活性中发挥作用。总的来说，我们的结果表明，褪黑激素可以通过调节与葡萄糖代谢相关的基因和相关酶的激活来提高葡萄糖代谢产物的产量和大豆在干旱胁迫下的耐受性。我们的研究结果为分析干旱胁迫条件下褪黑激素对大豆糖代谢的调节作用提供了详细的理论基础。