Transcriptome profiles reveal cold acclimation and freezing tolerance of susceptible and tolerant hulless barley genotypes

• DOI: 10.1007/s11738-017-2566-7
• Publication Date: 2017-11-15T09:56:54Z
• Authors: Hongjun Yuan; Xingquan Zeng; Zhihao Ling; Zexiu Wei; Yulin Wang; Zhenhua Zhuang; Qijun Xu; Yawei Tang; Nyima Tashi
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences

Cold injury often results in a drastic reduction in the yields of hulless barley, however, the genome-wide transcriptome changes in response to cold stress have not been intensively studied in hulless barley. Using mRNA sequencing, we compared the transcriptome profiles of two hulless barley genotypes (cv. H8 and T148: cold tolerant and susceptible genotypes, respectively) under cold acclimation and freezing treatments, which aim to identify genes that specifically respond to chilly conditions. Under cold acclimation and freezing treatments, the total number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in H8 is much higher than that in T148. In addition, the number of cold acclimation induced DEGs is higher than the number of DEGs induced by freezing in both cultivars. Based on gene ontology enrichment analysis and the construction of gene regulatory interaction networks, a group of genes that may contribute to the distinct cold tolerance between the two hulless barley genotypes were identified. This study provides a valuable source that can benefit for future cold tolerance improvement in barley and other crops.