Construction of Drought Stress Regulation Networks in Potato Based on SMRT and RNA Sequencing Data

Abstract Background: Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the fourth most important food crop in the world and plays an important role in food security. However, drought stress has a significantly negative impact on potato growth and production. Little information about the coordinated response in potato to drought stress has been obtained. The purpose of our research is to fully analyze the potato's response to drought stress.Results: In this study, next-generation sequencing (NGS) and single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing technology were used to study the transcription profiles in potato in response to drought stress. The leaves of the variety “Desiree” at the seedling stage after drought stress at six time points from 0 to 48 hours were used to perform NGS and SMRT sequencing. According to the sequencing data, a total of 12,798 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in six time points. The real-time (RT)-PCR results are significantly correlated with the sequencing data, confirming the accuracy of the sequencing data. Gene ontology and KEGG analysis show that these DEGs participate in response to drought stress through galactose metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, plant-pathogen interaction, glutathione metabolism and other pathways. Through the analysis of alternative splicing of 66,888 transcripts, the functional pathways of these transcripts were enriched, and 51,098 transcripts were newly discovered from alternative splicing events and 47,994 transcripts were functionally annotated. Moreover, 3,445 lncRNAs were predicted and enrichment analysis of corresponding target genes was also performed. Additionally, Alternative polyadenylation was analyzed by TADIS, and 26,153 poly (A) sites from 13,010 genes were detected in the Iso-Seq data. Conclusion: Our research greatly enhanced potato drought-induced gene annotations and provides transcriptome-wide insights into the molecular basis of potato drought resistance.