ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
This article is part of the Research TopicMechanisms of Metal Toxicity in Plants and Soil: Advances in Physiological, Biochemical, and Molecular InsightsView all articles
Crosstalk between glutathione and melatonin in chromium detoxification in sweet potato revealed by high-throughput sequencing and physio-biochemical profiling
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hainan University Sanya Nanfan Research Institute, Sanya, China
- 2Hainan University School of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Haikou, China
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Chromium (Cr) contamination severely inhibits plant productivity, primarily by disrupting photosynthetic performance, growth, and inducing oxidative stress. This study investigated the comparative molecular mechanisms by which exogenous glutathione (GSH) and melatonin (MT) confer tolerance to Cr stress in sweet potato using an integrated transcriptomic approach. Transcriptome analysis identified 7,734 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) across Cr stress and mitigator treatments. The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses showed that DEGs were mainly enriched in GO terms, such as photosynthesis, carbon fixation, and cell-wall organization, as well as pathways including MAPK signaling, glutathione metabolism, plant hormone signal transduction, and membrane/vesicle transport. These DEGs were subjected to cluster analysis, and four major expression clusters (C1-C4) were identified, with DEGs ranging from 1,234 to 3,285. GSH-specific protection was associated with Cluster C4, enhancing genes involved in ROS defense, H2O2 response, pyruvate metabolism, and ER protein processing, indicating improved redox and metabolic control Network analysis identified 30 potential key hub genes, including the growth regulator GA20OX1, the chlorophyll synthesis enzyme HEMA1, and the vacuolar transport aquaporin TIP2-1. These results suggest that GSH induces a stronger transcriptional response by effectively mitigating Cr-induced damage and strengthening a redox-centered defensive metabolic network. This identifies actionable molecular targets for crop improvement through breeding and genetic engineering.
Keywords: Chromium stress, detoxification, Glutathione, Hub genes, Photosynthesis, Sweet potato, transcriptome analysis
Received: 15 Dec 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Kumar, Ikram, Huang, Liu, Li, Wang and Zhu. 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: Guopeng Zhu
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