Physiological, Metabolic and Transcriptional Responses of Basil (Ocimum basilicum Linn. var. pilosum (Willd.) Benth.) to Heat Stress

As a medicinal and edible plant, basil (Ocimum basilicum Linn. var. pilosum (Willd.) Benth.) has rich nutrition significant economic value. The increase in heat stress caused by global warming adversely affects the growth yield of plants. However, response mechanism to is poorly understood. This work investigated changes phenotype, metabolome, transcriptome under stress. results showed that triggered severe oxidative damage photosynthesis inhibition basil. Metabonomic analysis that, compared control group, 29 significantly differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) were identified after 1 d treatment, 37 DAMs treatment 3 d. enriched several pathways such as glycolysis or gluconeogenesis; aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis; alanine, aspartate, glutamate metabolism. In addition, transcriptomic revealed 15,066 15,445 genes expressed respectively. Among them, 11,183 (DEGs) common including 5437 down-regulated DEGs 6746 up-regulated DEGs. All various KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia Genes Genomes) pathways, most dominated glyoxylate dicarboxylate metabolism, followed starch sucrose biosynthesis metabolism other secondary metabolites. Overall, all above provided some valuable insights into molecular