Transcriptomic Profiling of the Salt Tolerance Response in Roots of the Punica granatum ‘Fuanyihao’

Salt stress is a main factor that harms the growth of horticultural crops. To reveal the molecular mechanism of salt stress, we conducted transcriptome sequencing on samples of pomegranate ( Punica granatum ‘Fuanyihao’) roots subjected to salt stress at different time periods and control conditions. A total of 23,798 genes have been identified. Furthermore, 3366 genes, including 758 transcription factors (TFs), showed obvious differential expression in salt-tolerant or salt-sensitive genotypes. There is a certain quantity of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified under salt treatment at different time periods. Among them, many encoding TFs were found, such as bHLH-, NAC-, MYB-, ERF-, and WRKY- encoding genes. These DEGs were related to multiple pathways, mainly including the MAPK pathway, Glucosinolate biosynthesis, Cutin, etc. In these enriched pathways, plant hormone signal transduction and MAPK pathway-plant were the most notable. In total, abundant salt-stress response DEGs and pathways between pomegranate root systems treated at different times were identified, which promotes the understanding of salt-stress response mechanisms and are beneficial for improving a salt-resistance molecular breeding in pomegranate.