There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
<p class="first" id="d15395009e102">Rootstock grafting may improve the resistance
of watermelon plants to low temperatures.
However, information regarding the molecular responses of rootstock grafted plants
to chilling stress is limited. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of chilling tolerance
in grafted plants, the transcriptomic responses of grafted watermelon under chilling
stress were analyzed using RNA-seq analysis. Sequencing data were used for digital
gene expression (DGE) analysis to characterize the transcriptomic responses in grafted
watermelon seedlings. A total of 702 differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) were found
in rootstock grafted (RG) watermelon relative to self-grafted (SG) watermelon; among
these genes, 522 genes were up-regulated and 180 were down-regulated. Additionally,
164 and 953 genes were found to specifically expressed in RG and SG seedlings under
chilling stress, respectively. Functional annotations revealed that up-regulated DEGs
are involved in protein processing, plant-pathogen interaction and the spliceosome,
whereas down-regulated DEGs are associated with photosynthesis. Moreover, 13 DEGs
were randomly selected for quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis. The expression
profiles of these 13 DEGs were consistent with those detected by the DGE analysis,
supporting the reliability of the DGE data. This work provides additional insight
into the molecular basis of grafted watermelon responses to chilling stress.
</p>