Integrated physiological, hormonal and transcriptomic analyses reveal mechanisms of blackberry plants response to exogenous 6-benzylaminopurine

• Published in: Scientia horticulturae 2024-06, Vol.332, p.113181, Article 113181
• Main Authors: Wei, Zhiwen, Yang, Haiyan, Duan, Yongkang, Fan, Sufan, Wu, Wenlong, Lyu, Lianfei, Li, Weilin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 6-benzylaminopurine; Blackberry; Physiological characteristic; Phytohormone; Plant growth; Transcriptome
• ISSN: 0304-4238
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scienta.2024.113181

•Exogenous 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA) can effectively promote biomass production, chlorophyll biosynthesis, photosynthesis, sugar accumulation and antioxidant capacity in blackberry plants.•A concentration of 40 mg.L−1 of 6-BA was most beneficial for the growth and physiological metabolism of blackberry plants.•6-BA treatment increased most endogenous cytokinin (CTK) and auxin metabolites levels in blackberry plants.•Exogenous 6-BA can significantly affect the expression of genes related to phytohormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and flavonoid biosynthesis, and sugar metabolism pathways in blackberry plants. Blackberry is a fruit tree with important economic value, and 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA) is a plant growth regulator belonging to cytokinin (CTK). With the aim of revealing the regulatory mechanism of blackberry plants growth and development by exogenous 6-BA for the first time, we explored the physiological characteristic and transcriptomics of blackberry plants. Our study suggested that the blackberry plants treated with a concentration of 40 mg.L−1 of 6-BA not only grew better with the maximum values of plant growth parameters, total plant biomass, leaf photosynthetic characteristics, but also had the highest activities of antioxidant enzymes in leaves. Moreover, exogenous 6-BA can effectively promote biomass production, chlorophyll biosynthesis, photosynthesis, sugar accumulation and antioxidant capacity as well as increase most leaf endogenous CTK and auxin metabolites levels in blackberry plants. Transcriptome analysis showed that a total of 11,091 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected between the control (CK) and the other three 6-BA treatments. 6-BA treatment can significantly affect the expression of genes related to phytohormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and flavonoid biosynthesis, and sugar metabolism pathways to regulate blackberry plants growth and life activities. These results lay a theoretical foundation for further revealing the regulatory mechanism of CTK on blackberry plants growth and development, and have important reference significance for the application of 6-BA in blackberry cultivation.