Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum habrochaites are closely related plant species; however, their cold tolerance capacities are different. The wild species S. habrochaites is more cold tolerant than the cultivated species S. lycopersicum. The transcriptomes of S. lycopersicum and S. habrochaites leaf tissues under cold stress were studied using Illumina high-throughput RNA sequencing. The results showed that more than 200 million reads could be mapped to identify genes, microRNAs (miRNAs), and alternative splicing (AS) events to confirm the transcript abundance under cold stress. The results indicated that 21 % and 23 % of genes were differentially expressed in the cultivated and wild tomato species, respectively, and a series of changes in S. lycopersicum and S. habrochaites transcriptomes occur when plants are moved from warm to cold conditions. Moreover, the gene expression patterns for S. lycopersicum and S. habrochaites were dissimilar; however, there were some overlapping genes that were regulated by low temperature in both tomato species. An AS analysis identified 75,885 novel splice junctions among 172,910 total splice junctions, which suggested that the relative abundance of alternative intron isoforms in S. lycopersicum and S. habrochaites shifted significantly under cold stress. In addition, we identified 89 miRNA sequences that may regulate relevant target genes. Our data indicated that some miRNAs (e.g., miR159, miR319, and miR6022) play roles in the response to cold stress. Differences in gene expression, AS events, and miRNAs under cold stress may contribute to the observed differences in cold tolerance of these two tomato species.

Chloroplast ATP synthase (cpATPase) is responsible for ATP production during photosynthesis. Our previous studies showed that the cpATPase CF1 α subunit (AtpA) is a key protein involved in Clonostachys rosea-induced resistance to the fungus Botrytis cinerea in tomato. Here, we show that expression of the tomato atpA gene was upregulated by B. cinerea and Clonostachys rosea. The tomato atpA gene was then isolated, and transgenic tobacco lines were obtained. Compared with untransformed plants, atpA-overexpressing tobacco showed increased resistance to B. cinerea, characterized by reduced disease incidence, defense-associated hypersensitive response-like reactions, balanced reactive oxygen species, alleviated damage to the chloroplast ultrastructure of leaf cells, elevated levels of ATP content and cpATPase activity, and enhanced expression of genes related to carbon metabolism, photosynthesis, and defense. Incremental Ca²⁺ efflux and steady H⁺ efflux were observed in transgenic tobacco after inoculation with B. cinerea. In addition, overexpression of atpA conferred enhanced tolerance to salinity and resistance to the fungus Cladosporium fulvum. Thus, AtpA is a key regulator that links signaling to cellular redox homeostasis, ATP biosynthesis, and gene expression of resistance traits to modulate immunity to pathogen infection and provides broad-spectrum resistance in plants in the process.

Flower development, a vital phase in the plant life cycle, involves intricate physiological and morphogenetic processes driven by dynamic molecular and metabolic processes. However, the specific molecular mechanisms and metabolite accumulation patterns during Gastrodia elata flower development remain largely unknown. This study utilized Illumina’s next-generation sequencing to analyze the G. elata flower transcriptome across three critical developmental stages, capturing gene expression changes, particularly those related to transcription factors that regulate flower formation and metabolite accumulation. FPKM analysis showed significant transcriptomic changes during G. elata flower development, while targeted metabolomics identified key metabolites with stage-specific variations via widely targeted metabolic profiling. Here, integrative transcriptome and metabolome analyses were performed to investigate floral genes and compounds in G. elata flowers at three different developmental stages. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and significant changes in metabolites (SCMs) involved in key biological pathways were identified. This approach aimed to identify functional genes or pathways jointly enriched in metabolites, thereby defining pathways linked to crucial biological phenotypes. By mapping DEGs and SCMs to KEGG pathways, the comprehensive network was constructed, uncovering functional relationships between gene expression and metabolite accumulation. This study proposes dynamic models of transcriptomic and metabolite changes, revealing key regulatory networks that govern G. elata flower development and potential applications.