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Preliminary Analysis of the Salt-Tolerance Mechanisms of Different Varieties of Dandelion (Taraxacum mongolicum Hand.-Mazz.) Under Salt Stress

Current Issues in Molecular Biology 2025 1 citation ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 43 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Wei Feng, Ran Meng, Yue Chen, Zhaojia Li, Xuelin Lu, Xiuping Wang, Zhe Wu

Summary

Despite its title referencing salt tolerance in dandelion varieties, this paper studies how dandelion plants respond to soil salt stress at the molecular and metabolic level — not microplastic pollution. It examines transcriptomic and metabolomic changes under salt conditions and is not relevant to microplastics or human health.

Soil salinization hinders plant growth and agricultural production, so breeding salt-tolerant crops is an economical way to exploit saline-alkali soils. However, the specific metabolites and associated pathways involved in salt tolerance of the dandelion have not been clearly elucidated so far. Here, we compared the transcriptome and metabolome responses of 0.7% NaCl-stressed dandelion 'BINPU2' (variety A) and 'TANGHAI' (variety B). Our results showed that 222 significantly altered metabolites mainly enriched in arginine biosynthesis and pyruvate metabolism according to a KEGG database analysis in variety A, while 147 differential metabolites were predominantly enriched in galactose metabolism and the pentose phosphate pathway in variety B. The transcriptome data indicated that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in variety A were linked to secondary metabolite biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and photosynthesis-antenna proteins. Additionally, KEGG annotations revealed the DEGs had functions assigned to general function prediction only, post-translation modification, protein turnover, chaperones, and signal transduction mechanisms in variety A. By contrast, the DEGs had functions assigned to variety B as plant-pathogen interactions, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and photosynthesis-antenna proteins, including general function prediction, signal transduction mechanisms, and secondary metabolite biosynthesis from the KOG database functional annotation. Furthermore, 181 and 162 transcription factors (TFs) expressed under saline stress conditions specifically were detected between varieties A and B, respectively, representing 36 and 37 TF families. Metabolomics combined with transcriptomics revealed that salt stress induced substantial changes in terpenoid metabolites, ubiquinone biosynthesis metabolites, and pyruvate metabolites, mediated by key enzymes from the glycoside hydrolase family, adenylate esterases family, and P450 cytochrome family at the mRNA and/or metabolite levels. These results may uncover the potential salt-response mechanisms in different dandelion varieties, providing insights for breeding salt-tolerant crop plants suitable for saline-alkali land cultivation.

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