Background: Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) serves as an excellent model for studying plant water adaptation mechanisms due to its exceptional drought tolerance. While aquaporins (AQPs) mediate the transmembrane transport of water and solutes in plants, their fine-tuned regulatory networks underlying stress resilience in Tartary buckwheat remain largely elusive. Methods: Here, we combined bioinformatics and transcriptomics to systematically identify 30 highly conserved FtAQP genes at the genome-wide level. Results: Cross-validated by qRT-PCR, our analysis revealed their distinct expression patterns across different organs. Based on our transcriptomic data, we hypothesize that FtAQP family members potentially participate in a coordinated whole-plant water management network through differential spatiotemporal expression. Specifically, the robust transcription of FtAQP8, FtAQP12, and FtAQP28 in roots is associated with the initial water uptake process. As water undergoes long-distance transport, the synergistic upregulation of FtAQP13, FtAQP17, FtAQP20, and FtAQP29 in the stem suggests a potential role in facilitating critical lateral water flow. Furthermore, during reproductive development, FtAQP27 exhibits extreme tissue specificity in floral organs, implying its possible involvement in maintaining local osmotic homeostasis. Furthermore, the promoter regions of FtAQPs are highly enriched with cis-acting elements responsive to light, abscisic acid (ABA), and cold stress, suggesting they are intimately regulated by a coupling of endogenous phytohormones and environmental cues. Conclusions: Ultimately, this study provides valuable insights into the potential molecular basis of multidimensional water regulation in Tartary buckwheat, and identifies candidate genetic targets for improving water use efficiency in dryland agriculture through the precise manipulation of aquaporins. Collectively, while these observational findings provide valuable predictive models, future in vivo experimental validations are required to confirm their exact biological functions.

Fatty acid desaturase (FAD) is a rate-limiting enzyme catalyzing the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) and participates in key physiological processes such as plant growth and development, fruit ripening, and stress responses by regulating membrane lipid composition. Using pear genome data, this study systematically identified FAD gene family members through bioinformatic analysis and characterized their drought-responsive expression patterns. Results revealed that 34 FAD family members were identified in pear, unevenly distributed across 12 chromosomes and classified into six subfamilies. Members within the same subfamily exhibited similar conserved domains and gene structures. Promoter element analysis demonstrated that pear FAD promoters contain cis-acting elements associated with plant growth and development, hormone responses, and abiotic stress responses. qRT-PCR expression profiling showed that PbrFAD23 and PbrFAD30 were significantly upregulated during the early stages of drought stress, followed by suppressed expression levels, suggesting their potential crucial regulatory roles in the initial drought response. Genome-wide identification of 34 PbrFAD family members highlighted that PbrFAD23 and PbrFAD30, with marked upregulation under early drought stress, exhibit prominent drought responsiveness. This study provides valuable resistance gene resources for molecular breeding of stress-tolerant pear varieties and establishes a theoretical foundation for functional characterization of key drought-resistant candidate genes in pear.

Drought stress severely restricts the growth of pear trees. As a widely used drought-tolerant rootstock, Pyrus betulifolia exhibits stable growth performance; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying its drought tolerance remain to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the molecular responses of P. betulifolia leaves to osmotic stress induced by 20% PEG-4000 using time-series RNA-seq technology. A total of 3745 differentially expressed genes were identified, with transcriptional changes peaking at 6 h, indicating a critical phase of transcriptional reprogramming during drought response. Genes associated with osmotic adjustment (e.g., P5CS) and oxidative stress responses (e.g., SOD and POD) were significantly upregulated between 6 and 12 h. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) identified three distinct temporal modules and screened out NF-Y, RVE1, COL9, COL6, C2C2 zinc finger proteins, and Pseudo ARR-B as putative key regulators, whose expression patterns were validated using qRT-PCR. Collectively, these results provide a comprehensive view of the temporal transcriptional dynamics of drought response in P. betulifolia and offer valuable candidate gene resources for further functional studies and drought tolerance breeding.

Cell-wall polysaccharide O-acetylation contributes to cell-wall assembly, organ development, and plant–pathogen interactions, but the cucumber TBL gene family remains poorly characterized. Here, 37 CsTBL genes were identified genome-wide and analyzed using phylogenetic, syntenic, conserved-motif, gene-structure, promoter, protein-structure, Gene Ontology, and transcriptome approaches, followed by RT-qPCR analysis after powdery mildew inoculation. All CsTBL proteins contained the conserved GDS and DxxH motifs, whereas accessory motifs and predicted structural features varied among clades. Intraspecific analysis identified dispersed, WGD/segmental, and tandem duplication categories, and cross-species synteny was more extensive with melon than with Arabidopsis. Homology-derived annotations associated CsTBL genes with cell-wall polysaccharide metabolism, Golgi/endomembrane compartments, and O-acetyltransferase activity, including six genes assigned to xylan O-acetyltransferase-related annotations. Expression profiling revealed tissue- and developmental-stage-dependent patterns, whereas the publicly available powdery mildew RNA-seq dataset provided descriptive temporal expression profiles in Podosphaera xanthii-inoculated samples. Independent RT-qPCR analysis using time-matched mock controls revealed distinct post-inoculation responses among six selected genes. Relative to the corresponding mock controls, CsTBL2 was consistently repressed; CsTBL15 showed transient induction at 1 dpi followed by repression; CsTBL24 exhibited a biphasic response; CsTBL25 was induced at all sampled post-inoculation time points; CsTBL26 showed progressive induction; and CsTBL30 reached its highest observed expression level at 3 dpi. Integrated functional annotation and expression evidence highlighted CsTBL26 as a priority candidate for further functional characterization, while CsTBL24 and CsTBL25 represented fruit-associated candidates with distinct powdery mildew responses; CsTBL30 remained an additional strongly infection-responsive candidate. These findings provide an evolutionary and expression-based framework for the functional characterization of the cucumber TBL gene family.