Combined phenotypic and transcriptomic analysis of soybean plants subjected to multifactorial stress combination

Soybean plants were subjected to a multifactorial stress combination of up to five different stresses (water deficit, salinity, low phosphate, acidity, and cadmium), in an increasing level of complexity. All stresses were applied at the beginning of the experiment except for water deficit stress that was imposed after 21 days. Leaves and flowers were collected from 5-7 different plants under the mentioned stress conditions and after 10 days of starting water deficit conditions. Differential gene expression compared to control was studied using RNAseq method for all the possible stress combinations. Overall design: Tissues from soybean plants (31 days old) subjected to water deficit, salinity, low phosphate, acidity, and cadmium alone or in combination of 2, 3, 4 and 5 stresses were collected in liquid nitrogen. Total RNA was isolated and mRNA profile was generated by deep sequencing using NovaSeq 6000 PE150.