RNA-Seq analysis of roots of Axonopus compressus in response to aluminum toxicity

Aluminum (Al) toxicity is one of the major factors limiting crop growth in acid soils. Al inhibits root growth, reducing crop yield. Carpetgrass (Axonopus compressus) is a dominant warm-season turfgrass of Gramineae, and is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. Carpetgrass with great potential for Al toxicity tolerance is an excellent grass plant to investigate the mechanism of plant adaptation to Al toxicity. However, the molecular mechanisms of Al-responsive are still unclear in carpetgrass. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify candidate Al tolerance genes by genome-wide transcriptome analysis of carpetgrass root in response to Al toxicity. Through RNA-seq analysis, we identified 1351 up-regulated and 485 down-regulated genes to Al toxicity. Overall design: In this study, the Axonopus compressus accession 'A58', was used. The carpetgrass seedlings with about 5 cm roots length were subjected to 0 (CK) and 100 µM (Al) Al treatments. After 24 h of Al treatment, roots were harvested for RNA-seq analysis.