REVIEW article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1703649
Transcriptomic Landscapes of Ornamental Plants Under Salt and Drought Stress: Key Genes and Pathways for Tolerance
Provisionally accepted
- University of Jeddah College of Science, 835917, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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Salinity and drought are major ecological stresses that threaten the growth, appearance, and market value of ornamental plants. Transcriptomic studies have revealed the molecular basis of these responses, identifying pathways such as abscisic acid signaling, ion regulation, osmolyte accumulation, aquaporin-mediated water transport, antioxidant defense, and wax biosynthesis. Key transcription factor families (DREB/CBF, NAC, MYB, bZIP, WRKY, ERF) emerge as central regulators, acting alongside post-transcriptional and epitranscriptomic layers including alternative splicing, microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and m6A RNA modifications. Comparative analyses across roses, chrysanthemums, petunias, irises, and orchids reveal both conserved regulatory themes and species-specific adaptations, highlighting resilience mechanisms unique to ornamentals. This review synthesizes these insights and emphasizes their translational potential, particularly through marker-assisted selection and genome editing, to accelerate the breeding of ornamental varieties adapted to climate change.
Keywords: Transcriptomics, ornamental plants, Abiotic stress tolerance, Drought andsalinity, regulatory networks
Received: 11 Sep 2025; Accepted: 17 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alaswad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alaa A Alaswad, alaswad@atomicmail.io
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