Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses reveal the salt tolerance of rice significantly correlated with jasmonic acid biosynthesis and flavonoid biosynthesis

In this study, we investigated the protective role of exogenous ABA on leaves in response to salinity stress using rice seedlings (two leaf-one heart) subjected to three treatments: ZCK (control), ZS (50 mM NaCl), and ZSA (5 mg/L ABA+50 mM NaCl). We carried out transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses to identify the molecular mechanisms by which ABA protects plants against salt stress. Results showed that 1159 differentially expression genes (DEGs) (916 upregulated, 243 downregulated) and 63 differentially expression metabolites (DEMs) (42 upregulated, 21 downregulated) were identified between the ZS and ZSA treatments, respectively. In addition, ABA pretreatment regulated the expression pattern of genes responsible for oxidation redox, starch and sucrose metabolism, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. The combined transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis revealed that 16 DEGs and 2 DEMs were involved in Flavonoid biosynthesis and 8 DEGs and 2 DEMs were involved alpha-Linolenic acid metabolism which are responsible for salinity stress tolerance through induced by exogenous ABA.