Homoeolog expression divergence contributes to time of day changes in transcriptomic and glucosinolate responses to prolonged water limitation in Brassica napus

Abstract

Water availability is a major determinant of crop production, and rising temperatures from climate change are leading to more extreme droughts. To combat the effects of climate change on crop yields, we need to develop varieties that are more tolerant to water-limited conditions. We aimed to determine how diverse crop types (winter/spring oilseed, tuberous, and leafy) of the allopolyploid Brassica napus, a species that contains the economically important rapeseed oilseed crop, respond to prolonged water limitation. We exposed plants to an 80% reduction in water and assessed growth and color on a high-throughput phenotyping system over 4 weeks and ended the experiment with tissue collection for a time course transcriptomic study. We found an overall reduction in growth across cultivars but to varying degrees. Diel transcriptome analyses revealed significant accession-specific changes in time-of-day regulation of photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, and sulfur metabolism. Interestingly, there was extensive variation in which homoeologs from the two parental subgenomes responded to water limitation across crop types that could be due to differences in regulatory regions in these allopolyploid lines. Follow-up experiments on select cultivars confirmed that plants maintained photosynthetic health during the prolonged water limitation while slowing growth. In two cultivars examined, we found significant time of day changes in levels of glucosinolates, sulfur- and nitrogen -rich specialized metabolites, consistent with the diel transcriptomic responses. These results suggest that these lines are adjusting their sulfur and nitrogen stores under water-limited conditions through distinct time of day regulation.