A time-course transcriptome reveals the response of watermelon to low-temperature stress
2025
Jin Wang | Minghua Wei | Haiyan Wang | Changjuan Mo | Yingchun Zhu | Qiusheng Kong
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an economically important horticultural crop. However, it is susceptible to low-temperature stress, which significantly challenges its production and supply. Despite the great economic importance of watermelon, little is known about its response to low-temperature stress at the transcriptional level. In this study, we performed a time-course transcriptome analysis to systematically investigate the regulatory network of watermelon under low-temperature stress. Six low-temperature-responsive gene clusters representing six expression patterns were identified, revealing diverse regulation of metabolic pathways in watermelon under low-temperature stress. Analysis of temporally specific differentially expressed genes revealed the time-dependent nature of the watermelon response to low temperature. Moreover, ClMYB14 was found to be a negative regulator of low-temperature tolerance as ClMYB14-OE lines were more susceptible to low-temperature stress. Co-expression network analysis demonstrated that ClMYB14 participates in the low-temperature response by regulating the unsaturated fatty acid pathway and heat shock transcription factor. This study provides substantial information for understanding the regulatory network of watermelon in response to low-temperature stress, and identifies candidate genes for the genetic improvement of watermelon with higher low-temperature tolerance.
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