Transcriptome analysis of root of Nicotiana tabacum responded to high and low concentrations of nitrate

Objective: This study aimed to explore genes and transcription factors (TFs) that were closely related to the response to different concentrations of nitrate (N) in tobacco root.Methods: Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. (K326) was used in this study. The RNA sequencing data generated from K326 treated with high or low concentration of N supply on different time points (0 h, 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h) were analyzed to determine the transcriptome response of tobacco root to N supply.Results: The expression of numerous genes was altered after high/low N treatment. Further analysis obtained 1981 and 3573 DEGs from low N and high N treatment groups respectively. Comparative analysis identified 567 low N-specific, 2159 high N-specific and 1414 common expressed genes. Combining STEM and WGCNA results, 136 and 416 DEGs were respectively identified from low N and high N treatment groups, among which, 12 ones were TFs. In the constructed PPI network, three DEGs in high N group (LOC107807186, LOC107792457 and LOC107786314) had the highest degrees. In low N group, LOC107798206, LOC107815159 and LOC107779796 had higher degrees. Among the 12 TFs, LOC107778750, LOC107810552 and LOC107804260 had higher degrees.