TY - JOUR UR - https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13669 DO - 10.7717/peerj.13669 TI - Comparative transcriptomics reveals new insights into melatonin-enhanced drought tolerance in naked oat seedlings AU - Zhang,Xinjun AU - Liu,Wenting AU - Lv,Yaci AU - Bai,Jing AU - Li,Tianliang AU - Yang,Xiaohong AU - Liu,Liantao AU - Zhou,Haitao A2 - Sun,Genlou DA - 2022/06/28 PY - 2022 KW - Naked oat KW - Transcriptome KW - Melatonin KW - Drought stress AB - The growth and development of naked oat (Avena nuda L.) seedlings, a grain recognized as nutritious and healthy, is limited by drought. Melatonin plays a positive role in plants under drought stress. However, its function is unclear in naked oats. This study demonstrated that melatonin enhances drought stress tolerance in oat seedlings. Melatonin application alleviated the declining growth parameters of two naked oat varieties, Huazao No.2 (H2) and Jizhangyou No.15 (J15), under drought stress by increasing the chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate of leaves. Melatonin pretreatment induced differential gene expression in H2 and J15 under drought stress. Subsequently, the differential gene expression responses to melatonin in the two varieties were further analyzed. The key drought response transcription factors and the regulatory effect of melatonin on drought-related transcription factors were assessed, focusing on genes encoding proteins in the ABA signal transduction pathway, including PYL, PP2C, ABF, SNRK2, and IAA. Taken together, this study provides new insights into the effect and underlying mechanism of melatonin in alleviating drought stress in naked oat seedlings. VL - 10 SP - e13669 T2 - PeerJ JO - PeerJ J2 - PeerJ SN - 2167-8359 ER -