AUTHOR=Shen Changwei , Wang Jie , Shi Xiaoqian , Kang Yalong , Xie Changyan , Peng Lirun , Dong Caixia , Shen Qirong , Xu Yangchun TITLE=Transcriptome Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes Induced by Low and High Potassium Levels Provides Insight into Fruit Sugar Metabolism of Pear JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2017.00938 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2017.00938 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=
Potassium (K) deficiency is a common abiotic stress that can inhibit the growth of fruit and thus reduce crop yields. Little research has been conducted on pear transcriptional changes under low and high K conditions. Here, we performed an experiment with 7-year-old pot-grown “Huangguan” pear trees treated with low, Control or high K levels (0, 0.4, or 0.8 g·K2O/kg soil, respectively) during fruit enlargement and mature stages. We identified 36,444 transcripts from leaves and fruit using transcriptome sequencing technology. From 105 days after full blooming (DAB) to 129 DAB, the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in leaves and fruit in response to low K increased, while in response to high K, the number of DEGs in leaves and fruit decreased. We selected 17 of these DEGs for qRT-PCR analysis to confirm the RNA sequencing results. Based on GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analysis, we found that low-K treatment significantly reduced K nutrient and carbohydrate metabolism of the leaves and fruit compared with the Control treatment. During the fruit development stages,