Single-Cell Atlas of Pearl Millet Leaf Reveals Roles of Heat Stress Memory Genes in Heat Tolerance

The intensification of global warming poses urgent needs for breeding new crops with superior heat tolerance, which requires fundamental understanding of the adaptive mechanisms of heat-tolerant crops such as pearl millet. However, the transcriptional heterogeneity and heat stress memory in pearl millet affects heat-tolerant remains unclear. We constructed single-cell transcriptomic atlases of pearl millet leaves under heat stress and normal conditions by 20,589 high-quality cells into five cell types. We further identified 3,234 cell type-specific expression genes under heat stress, which significantly enriched in response to abiotic stress and signal transduction. Vascular tissue cells contained the highest number of differentially expressed genes under heat stress, significantly enriched in the Cyclic adenosine 3,5-monophosphate(cAMP) signaling pathway.