Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is an important industrial crop that is often cultivated on marginal lands, where salt stress negatively affects yield and quality. High-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) using the powerful Illumina platform was employed for transcript analysis and gene discovery to reveal flax response mechanisms to salt stress. After cDNA libraries were constructed from flax exposed to water (negative control) or salt (100 mM NaCl) for 12 h, 24 h or 48 h, transcription expression profiles and cDNA sequences representing expressed mRNA were obtained. A total of 431,808,502 clean reads were assembled to form 75,961 unigenes. After ruling out short-length and low-quality sequences, 33,774 differentially expressed unigenes (DEUs) were identified between salt-stressed and unstressed control (C) flax. Of these DEUs, 3669, 8882 and 21,223 unigenes were obtained from flax exposed to salt for 12 h (N1), 24 h (N2) and 48 h (N4), respectively. Gene function classification and pathway assignments of 2842 DEUs were obtained by comparing unigene sequences to information within public data repositories. qRT-PCR of selected DEUs was used to validate flax cDNA libraries generated for various durations of salt exposure. Based on transcriptome sequences, 1777 EST-SSRs were identified of which trinucleotide and dinucleotide repeat microsatellite motifs were most abundant. The flax DEUs and EST-SSRs identified here will serve as a powerful resource to better understand flax response mechanisms to salt exposure for development of more salt-tolerant varieties of flax.

Crop rotation affects soil properties and soil microbial diversity and structure. Currently, it is not well understood how soil microbial diversity changes following different crop rotation systems of industrial hemp, an ancient and economically important crop. Therefore, these changes were analyzed in this study. Our results showed that different rotation systems significantly affected the wilt disease incidence, plant height, yield, soil physicochemical properties and soil microbial communities in the greenhouse. The rotation systems used in this study significantly reduced the plant mortality and increased the yield compared with a monoculture system. The levels of alkaline hydrolysis and available phosphorus in the soil decreased significantly compared with a monoculture cropping system. Using MiSeq high-throughput sequencing, we showed that the soil diversity and number of bacteria and fungi were significantly higher for rotation systems and controls compared to the monoculture system. The relative abundance of pathogens increased with a monoculture system. Redundancy analysis suggests that soil properties may also affect the soil microbial composition. Taken together, different rotation systems used in this study significantly decreased the disease incidence, increased plant yields and increased soil microbial diversity compared with monoculture for industrial hemp. We believe that applying these rotation systems is an efficient and eco-friendly approach to control soil borne pathogenic diseases and increase floral yields.

Flax stem bast fiber, a natural raw material used to make textiles, possesses poor heat and dye resistance, excessive stiffness and low elasticity. To improve fiber quality and quantity, flax fiber... 摘要:亚麻纤维是一种天然的纺织原料, 具有耐热性差, 耐染性差, 硬度大, 弹性低等特点。为了提高亚麻纤维的品质和产量, 本研究利用RNA-seq技术对亚麻品种Agatha和白花在快速生长期和绿熟期茎中部差异表达基因 (DEGs) 进行了鉴定。在快速生长期, 两个品种间有300个DEGs; 在绿熟期, 两个品种间有486个DEGs。Agatha在两个发育时期间有2504个DEGs, 白花在两...

The WOX (WUSCHEL-related homeobox) gene family plays pivotal roles in plant growth, development, and responses to biotic/abiotic stresses. Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), a globally important oilseed and fiber crop, lacks a comprehensive characterization of its WOX family. Here, 18 LuWOX genes were systematically identified in the flax genome through bioinformatics analyses. Phylogenetic classification grouped these genes into three clades: Ancient, Intermediate, and WUS Clades, with members within the same clade exhibiting conserved exon–intron structures and motif compositions. Promoter analysis revealed abundant cis-acting elements associated with hormone responses (MeJA, abscisic acid) and abiotic stress adaptation (anaerobic induction, drought, low temperature). Segmental duplication events (nine gene pairs) contributed significantly to LuWOX family expansion. Protein–protein interaction networks implicated several LuWOX proteins in stress-responsive pathways. Expression profiling demonstrated that most LuWOX genes were highly expressed in 5-day-post-anthesis (DPA) flowers and embryonic tissues. qRT-PCR validation further uncovered distinct expression patterns of LuWOX genes under cold, drought, and salt stresses. This study established a foundational framework for leveraging LuWOX genes to enhance stress tolerance in flax breeding and functional genomics.

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is an ancient and economically important crop used in food, medicine, textile, and paper industries (Chandra et al. 2017). In July 2021, an estimated 30% of the...

In this study, the flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) genes associated with resistance to the disease pasmo (Septoria linicola (Speg.) Garassini) were mapped using genome resequencing and bulked segregant analysis (BSA) of genomic DNA of the pasmo-resistant parent y62–9, pasmo-susceptible parent y64–5, and F₂ generation segregants. Pasmo resistance genes were identified using Gene Ontology (GO) functional prediction and gene annotation methods. A Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis revealed the biological information and molecular mechanisms associated with the flax-pathogen interaction. The results of a quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that the levels of expression of the three genes Lus10003106, Lus10022077, and Lus10021999 differed between the y62–9 (pasmo-resistant) and y64–5 (pasmo-susceptible) parental flax lines after the inoculation of plants with the pasmo pathogen. Thus, these genes may play key roles in the resistance of flax to pasmo. The results of this study provide a foundation to support future studies of the pathogenesis of flax disease and the discovery and cloning of resistance genes and development of new molecular markers toward the development of pasmo-resistant flax varieties.