Meta-analysis, WGCNA, and machine learning converge on a four-gene biomarker panel for heat stress tolerance in Solanum lycopersicum

Heat stress severely compromises growth, reproduction, and yield in Solanum lycopersicum, necessitating the identification of reliable molecular biomarkers for thermotolerance. Here, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis of transcriptomic datasets encompassing diverse heat-stress experiments and identified 526 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 225 upregulated and 301 downregulated candidates.