Comparative physiological and transcriptomic analyses reveal the actions of melatonin in the delay of postharvest physiological deterioration of cassava

Frontiers in Plant Science

Haitao eShi¹  Yunling eGuo²  Anping eGuo²  Wei eHu²  Yuliang eZhang²  Zehong eDing²  Hua eKong²  Yan eYan²  Qixing eHuang²  Ming ePeng²  Weiwei eTie² 

[1] College of Agriculture, Hainan University;Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences;

关键词: Melatonin;    Reactive Oxygen Species;    cassava;    Starch metabolism;    Postharvest physiological deterioration;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpls.2016.00736

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Melatonin plays important roles in various aspects of biological processes. However, it is less known on the effects and mechanism of melatonin on the postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) process of cassava, which largely restricts the potential of cassava as a food and industrial crop. In this study, we found that exogenous application of melatonin significantly delayed PPD of cassava tuberous roots by reducing H2O2 content and improving activities of catalase and peroxidase. Moreover, 3425 differentially expressed genes by melatonin during the PPD process were identified by transcriptomic analysis. Several pathways were markedly affected by melatonin treatments, including metabolic-, ion homeostasis-, and enzyme activity-related processes. Further detailed analysis revealed that melatonin acted through activation of ROS-scavenging and ROS signal transduction pathways, including antioxidant enzymes, calcium signaling, MAPK cascades, and transcription factors at early stages. Notably, the starch degradation pathway was also activated at early stages, whereas it was repressed by melatonin at middle and late stages, thereby indicating its regulatory role in starch metabolism during PPD. Taken together, this study yields new insights into the effect and underlying mechanism of melatonin on the delay of PPD and provides a good strategy for extending shelf life and improvement of cassava tuberous roots.

【 授权许可】

Unknown