Using Principal Component Analysis and RNA-Seq to Identify Candidate Genes That Control Salt Tolerance in Garlic (Allium sativum L.)

To examine physiological responses of garlic to salinity, 17-day-old seedlings eight soft-neck accessions were treated with 200 mM NaCl for seven days in a hydroponic system. Several morphological and traits measured at the end treatment, including shoot height, fresh weight, dry root length, photosynthesis rate, concentrations Na+ K+ leaves. The principal component analysis showed that weight K+/Na+ ratio contribute most salt tolerance among accessions. As result, salt-tolerant sensitive grouped based on these two parameters. Furthermore, investigate molecular mechanisms response transcriptomes leaves roots between salt-sensitive compared. Approximately 1.5 billion read pairs obtained from 24 libraries generated A total 47,509 genes identified by mapping cleaned reads reference genome. Statistical indicated 1282 1068 upregulated solely tolerant roots, whereas 1505 1203 downregulated exclusively after respectively. Functional categorization revealed their involvement variety biological processes. important carotenoid biosynthesis, auxin signaling, transport strongly altered treatment could be candidate improvement.