UV-B and UV-C irradiation trigger both common and distinctive signal perceptions and transmissions in Pinus tabuliformis Carr.

In plants, ultraviolet (UV)-light is an important driver for their growth and natural distribution and is also a valuable tool for manipulating their productivity as well as their biotic interactions. Understanding plant responses to different UV radiation is sparse, especially from a systems biology perspective and particularly for conifers. Here, we evaluated the physiological and transcriptomic responses to the short-term application of high-irradiance UV-B and UV-C waves on Pinus tabuliformis Carr., a major conifer in Northern China. By undertaking time-ordered gene co-expression network analyses and network comparisons incorporating physiological traits and gene expression variation, we uncovered communalities but also differences in P. tabuliformis responses to UV-B and UV-C. Both types of spectral bands caused a significant inhibition of photosynthesis and conversely improvement of antioxidant capacity, flavonoid production and signaling pathways related to stress resistance, indicating a clear switch from predominantly primary metabolism to enhanced defensive metabolism in pine. We isolated distinct subnetworks for photoreceptor-mediated signal transduction, maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) regulation and flavonoid biosynthesis in response to UV-B and UV-C irradiation. From these subnetworks, we further identified phototropins as potential important elements in both UV-B and UV-C signaling and, for the first time, reveal peptide hormones possibly involved in promoting flavonoid biosynthesis against UV-B, while these hormones seem not to be implicated in defense against UV-C exposure. The present study employed an effective strategy for disentangling the complex physiological and genetic regulatory mechanisms in a non-model plant species, and thus, provides a suitable reference for future functional evaluations and artificial UV-light mediated growing strategies in plant production. Pinus tabuliformis Raw sequence reads from UV-B and UV-C irradiation experiment