ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Bioinformatics
This article is part of the Research TopicMulti-omics and Computational Biology in Horticultural Plants: From Genotype to Phenotype, Volume IVView all 4 articles
Deciphering Intra-connectivity of Gene Network Response to Drought and Salinity in Apple
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China
- 2Yan'an University, Yan'an, China
- 3Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou, China
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Drought and salt stresses severely constrain apple yield and quality. Using in vitro plantlets of apple 'Golden Delicious' as experimental materials, we aimed to dissect the stress-responsive mechanisms and provide a basis for the genetic improvement of apple stress resistance. Plantlets under NaCl (salt stress) and PEG (drought stress) treatments, with samples collected at 0, 1, 6, 12 and 24 h post-treatment for transcriptome sequencing. Gene expression levels were quantified as FPKM values to analyze temporal dynamic changes, and Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) were screened with |log2(FoldChange)| >1 and padj<0.05. Co-expression analysis was performed to explore the interaction patterns of stress-related genes, coupled with Gene Ontology (GO) (p-value<0.05) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) (FDR<0.05) enrichment analyses. The core regulatory network of the "hormone signal-metabolic pathway" in apple in response to salt/drought stresses was identified, with the key nodes of this network clarified as MdAREB3/MdJAZ1, MdPETE1, MdSNF1 and MdGH9C2, which are involved in hormone signal transduction, photosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism, respectively. Stage-specific expression differences of key DEGs at 0, 1, 6, 12 and 24 h post NaCl/PEG treatments were further characterized via comparison of their expression patterns under the two stress conditions. This study systematically identifies the core regulatory network and its key nodes in apple in response to salt and drought stresses, thereby providing a reliable molecular basis for deciphering stress resistance mechanisms, verifying key gene functions, and the genetic improvement of salt/drought-tolerant apple varieties.
Keywords: apple, hormone signal transduction, MdSNF1, salt-drought stress, transcriptome analysis
Received: 09 Dec 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wu, Li, Zhao, Li, Chu and Huang. 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:
Ruigang Wu
Zhenyu Huang
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