Uncovering key salt-tolerant regulators through a combined eQTL and GWAS analysis using the super pan-genome in rice
Hua Wei, Xianmeng Wang, Zhipeng Zhang, Longbo Yang, Qianqian Zhang, Yilin Li, Huiying He, Dandan Chen, Bin Zhang, Chongke Zheng, Yue Leng, Xinglan Cao, Yan Cui, Chuanlin Shi, Yifan Liu, Yang Lv, Jie Ma, Wenchuang He, Xiangpei Liu, Qiang Xu, Qiaoling Yuan, Xiaoman Yu, Tianyi Wang, Hongge Qian, Xiaoxia Li, Bintao Zhang, Hong Zhang, Wu Chen, Mingliang Guo, Xiaofan Dai, Yuexing Wang, Xiaoming Zheng, Longbiao Guo, Xianzhi Xie, Qian Qian, Lianguang Shang
Abstract
ABSTRACT For sessile plants, gene expression plays a pivotal role in responding to salinity stress by activating or suppressing specific genes. However, our knowledge of genetic variations governing gene expression in response to salt stress remains limited in natural germplasm. Through transcriptome analysis of the Global Mini-Core Rice Collection consisting of a panel of 202 accessions, we identified 22 345 and 27 610 expression quantitative trait loci associated with the expression of 7787 and 9361 eGenes under normal and salt-stress conditions, respectively, leveraging the super pan-genome map. Notably, combined with genome-wide association studies, we swiftly pinpointed the potential candidate gene STG5—a major salt-tolerant locus known as qSTS5. Intriguingly, STG5 is required for maintaining Na+/K+ homeostasis by directly regulating the transcription of multiple members of the OsHKT gene family. Our study sheds light on how genetic variants influence the dynamic changes in gene expression responding to salinity stress and provides a valuable resource for the mining of salt-tolerant genes in the future.