Transcriptome of 16 Tomato Samples
Secondary soil salinization in Chinese greenhouses adversely affects plant growth. Previous studies have suggested that the sulfate transporter-like protein SlSULTR4b may be involved in tomato nitrate stress tolerance, but its precise regulatory mechanism remains unclear.Nitrate stress significantly induced the expression of the SlSULTR4b gene. Compared to wild-type plants, SlSULTR4b-overexpressing plants exhibited enhanced tolerance to nitrate stress, as evidenced by lower malondialdehyde content, reduced hydrogen peroxide accumulation, significantly increased antioxidant enzyme activity, and higher net photosynthetic rate under nitrate stress condition, whereas SlSULTR4b mutant plants showed nitrate stress sensitivity. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that nitrate stress induced the upregulation of numerous genes, with the differentially expressed genes in OE plants being significantly enriched in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction pathways compared to WT plants.