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High-temperature stress (HTS) affects the growth and production of vegetable crops, including eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). Jasmonic acid (JA) plays key roles in regulating resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. Nonetheless, reports on the role of JA in heat tolerance in eggplant are rare. Herein, the effects of JA on heat tolerance in eggplant and the functions of the JA biosynthetic genes SmLOX4 and SmLOX5 were analyzed. The results showed that the JA content increased under high-temperature treatment (HTT) and exogenous methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment reduced the damage caused by HTT to eggplant. The expression of SmLOX4 and SmLOX5 was induced by HTT and significantly positively correlated with JA biosynthesis. SmLOX4 and SmLOX5 were localized in chloroplasts. The silencing of SmLOX4 and SmLOX5 by virus-induced gene silencing suppressed the heat tolerance of eggplant, whereas the overexpression of SmLOX4 and SmLOX5 enhanced the heat tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana. JA content and the expression of JA signaling–related genes decreased in the SmLOX4 - and SmLOX5 -silenced plants but increased in the OE- SmLOX4 and OE- SmLOX5 transgenic plants. These results revealed that SmLOX4 and SmLOX5 improved eggplant heat tolerance by mediating JA biosynthesis and JA signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High quantities of anthocyanins in plants confer potential protective benefits against biotic and abiotic stressors. Studies have shown that the bZIP transcription factor HY5 plays a key role in controlling anthocyanin accumulation in response to light. However, in hy5 mutants, residual anthocyanins have been detected, indicating that other regulators exist to regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis in an HY5-independent manner. Here, we employed the CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspersed short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9) system specifically to induce targeted mutagenesis of SlHY5 in the purple tomato cultivar 'Indigo Rose'. The T2 generation of tomato plants homozygous for the null allele of the SlHY5 frameshift mutated by a 1 bp insertion contained a lower anthocyanin content. Transcriptional analysis showed that most of the anthocyanin biosynthesis structural genes and several regulatory genes were down-regulated in the hy5 mutant lines. With transcriptome analyses of the various tissues from hy5 mutant lines, eight candidate transcription factors were identified that may regulate anthocyanin biosynthesis in an HY5-independent manner. These findings deepen our understanding of how light controls anthocyanin accumulation and facilitate the identification of the regulators of anthocyanin biosynthesis in an HY5-independent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eggplant ( Solanum melongena ) is a major vegetable crop worldwide. However, it is susceptible to bacterial wilt (BW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum , which has become an important factor limiting eggplant yield and quality. The underlying mechanism of BW remains unknown. Here, RNA-sequencing was used to characterize the transcriptomes of resistant (R) and susceptible (S) strains before (R0, S0) and after (R1, S1) R. solanacearum inoculation. After the removal of low-quality sequences and assembly, 125,852 contigs, 122,508 transcripts, and 68,792 unigenes were identified, with 51,165 non-redundant unigenes annotated. Functional annotations were provided for 11,039 unigenes using four databases (NCBI Nr, Swissprot, KEGG and COG database). A total of 1137 and 9048 genes were found to be up- and down-regulated, respectively, in R0 relative to R1 samples, with 738 and 217 up- and down-regulated in S0 relative to R0 samples, 6087 and 5832 up- and down-regulated in S0 relative to S1 samples, and 4712 and 12,523 up- and down-regulated in S1 relative to R1 samples, respectively. In conclusion, our results provide useful insights into the potential mechanism of BW and are an important basis for further analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]