Identification and characterization of cold-responsive hub genes in tea plant (Camellia sinensis) using systems biology analysis

The Camellia sinensis is an important commercial woody crop, that grow mainly in subtropical and tropical regions. Tea plant, contains various secondary metabolites and its young leaves are processed to prepare “tea”. To investigate the response mechanism of tea plants under cold stress for improving breeding, compared transcriptome responses, and associated genes expression in response cold resistance in tea plant. However, the genetic regulatory network and signaling pathways involved in cold stress responses in tea plants are not well understood. In this study, a co-expression analysis was performed to understand the underlying transcriptomic mechanisms that are critical for the response to cold stress. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) is a powerful approach for interpreting large transcriptomic datasets. This enables the characterization of modules of co-expressed genes that may share biological functional linkages. Based on these results, WGCNA identified ۸ distinct co-expression modules. All module groups were significantly associated with genes involved in the response to environmental stresses. Network analysis also determined hub genes, such as MYb, CML, and ZAT, which may be involved in regulating cold responses. These findings could help understand the mechanisms of response to cold stresses and to identify candidate hub genes that may be effective in tea plant breeding programs.

کلیدواژه ها:

cold stress ، Co-expression ، Transcriptome ، tea plant ، Camellia sinensis