High temperature, whether transitory or constant, causes physiological, biochemical and molecular changes that adversely affect tree growth and productivity by reducing photosynthesis. To elucidate the photosynthetic adaption response and examine the recovery capacity of trees under heat stress, we measured gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, electron transport, water use efficiency, and reactive oxygen-producing enzyme activities in heat-stressed plants. We found that photosynthesis could completely recover after less than six hours of high temperature treatment, which might be a turning point in the photosynthetic response to heat stress. Genome-wide gene expression analysis at six hours of heat stress identified 29,896 differentially expressed genes (15,670 up-regulated and 14,226 down-regulated), including multiple classes of transcription factors. These interact with each other and regulate the expression of photosynthesis-related genes in response to heat stress, controlling carbon fixation and changes in stomatal conductance. Heat stress of more than twelve hours caused reduced electron transport, damaged photosystems, activated the glycolate pathway and caused H₂O₂ production; as a result, photosynthetic capacity did not recover completely. This study provides a systematic physiological and global gene expression profile of the poplar photosynthetic response to heat stress and identifies the main limitations and threshold of photosynthesis under heat stress. It will expand our understanding of plant thermostability and provides a robust dataset for future studies.

Background: Drought is one of the main environmental factors limiting tree growth and productivity of plantation forests worldwide. Populus hopeiensis Hu et Chow is one of the most important commercial plantation tree species in China. However, the genes controlling drought tolerance in this species have not been identified or characterized. Here, we conducted differential expression analyses and identified a number of genes that were up- or downregulated in P. hopeiensis during water stress. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study of differentially expressed genes in water-stressed P. hopeiensis. Results: Using the cDNA-AFLP detection technique, we used 256 primer combinations to identify differentially expressed genes in P. hopeiensis during water stress. In total, 415 transcript derived-fragments (TDFs) were obtained from 10× deep sequencing of 473 selected TDFs. Of the 415 TDFs, 412 were annotated by BLAST searches against various databases. The majority of these genes encoded products involved in ion transport and compartmentalization, cell division, metabolism, and protein synthesis. The TDFs were clustered into 12 groups on the basis of their expression patterns. Of the 415 reliable TDFs, the sequences of 35 were homologous to genes that play roles in short or long-term resistance to drought stress. Some genes were further selected for validation of cDNA-AFLP expression patterns using real-time PCR analyses. The results confirmed the expression patterns that were detected using the cDNA-AFLP technique. Conclusion: The cDNA-AFLP technique is an effective and powerful tool for identifying candidate genes that are differentially expressed under water stress. We demonstrated that 415 TDFs were differentially expressed in water-stressed poplar. The products of these genes are involved in various biological processes in the drought response of poplar. The results of this study will aid in the identification of candidate genes of future experiments aimed at understanding this response of poplar.