TY - JOUR

T1 - Integrative Transcriptomic and Evolutionary Analysis of Drought and Heat Stress Responses in Solanum tuberosum and Solanum lycopersicum

AU - Bondar, Eugeniya I.

AU - Zubairova, Ulyana S.

AU - Bobrovskikh, Aleksandr V.

AU - Doroshkov, Alexey V.

N1 - This research was funded by Russian Science Foundation, grant number 24-24-00452 (https://rscf.ru/project/24-24-00452/, accessed on 10 October 2025). The APC was funded by Russian Science Foundation, grant number 24-24-00452.

PY - 2025/12/17

Y1 - 2025/12/17

N2 - Abiotic stresses such as drought and heat severely constrain the growth and productivity of Solanaceae crops, including potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), yet the conserved regulatory mechanisms underlying their stress adaptation remain incompletely understood. Here, we performed an integrative meta-analysis of publicly available transcriptomic datasets, complemented by comparative and evolutionary analyses across the Solanum genus. Functional annotation revealed coordinated transcriptional reprogramming characterized by induction of protective processes, including molecular chaperone activity, oxidative stress responses, and immune signaling, accompanied by repression of photosynthetic and primary metabolic pathways, reflecting energy reallocation under stress conditions. Promoter motif and transcription factor enrichment analyses implicated the bZIP, bHLH, DOF, and BBR/BPC families as central regulators of drought- and heat-induced transcriptional programs. Orthogroup inference and (Formula presented.) analysis across representative Solanum species demonstrated a predominance of purifying selection, indicating evolutionary conservation of regulatory network architecture. Integration of motif occurrence, co-expression profiles, and protein–protein interaction data enabled reconstruction of regulatory networks and identification of conserved hub transcription factors coordinating stress responses. Comparative analysis revealed distinct but conserved transcriptional signatures for heat and drought shared between potato and tomato, indicative of conserved abiotic stress strategies across Solanaceae.

AB - Abiotic stresses such as drought and heat severely constrain the growth and productivity of Solanaceae crops, including potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), yet the conserved regulatory mechanisms underlying their stress adaptation remain incompletely understood. Here, we performed an integrative meta-analysis of publicly available transcriptomic datasets, complemented by comparative and evolutionary analyses across the Solanum genus. Functional annotation revealed coordinated transcriptional reprogramming characterized by induction of protective processes, including molecular chaperone activity, oxidative stress responses, and immune signaling, accompanied by repression of photosynthetic and primary metabolic pathways, reflecting energy reallocation under stress conditions. Promoter motif and transcription factor enrichment analyses implicated the bZIP, bHLH, DOF, and BBR/BPC families as central regulators of drought- and heat-induced transcriptional programs. Orthogroup inference and (Formula presented.) analysis across representative Solanum species demonstrated a predominance of purifying selection, indicating evolutionary conservation of regulatory network architecture. Integration of motif occurrence, co-expression profiles, and protein–protein interaction data enabled reconstruction of regulatory networks and identification of conserved hub transcription factors coordinating stress responses. Comparative analysis revealed distinct but conserved transcriptional signatures for heat and drought shared between potato and tomato, indicative of conserved abiotic stress strategies across Solanaceae.

KW - co-expression analysis

KW - differential gene expression

KW - gene regulatory networks

KW - orthologous genes

KW - potato

KW - stress adaptation

KW - systems biology

KW - tomato

KW - transcription factors

KW - transcriptomic meta-analysis

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105025799892

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/b0e16309-d335-303a-9b11-acb471776479/

U2 - 10.3390/plants14243851

DO - 10.3390/plants14243851

M3 - Article

VL - 14

JO - Plants

JF - Plants

SN - 2223-7747

IS - 24

M1 - 3851

ER -