RNA-seq unveils pathways for drought and salinity resilience in Egyptian rice Sakha 102

Refining stress-specific and communal adaptive mechanisms for drought and salinity is fundamental for developing resilient rice lines efficiently adapting arid or semi-amid agroecosystems. RNAseq profiling of Egyptian rice cultivar Sakha 102 seedlings subjected to osmo-equivalent doses of mannitol and NaCl showed a 24.7% overlap in differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between osmotic and salinity stresses, with 47% of DEGs unique to osmotic stress and 3.6% specific to salinity. Drought specifically upregulates genes like hexokinase I (involved in sugar sensing) and leaf trichome cell wall strengthening, whereas salinity stress activates signaling genes, including Cysteine-Rich Receptor-Like Protein Kinases and the cytoplasmic kinase RLCK223. Additionally, both stresses induce common genes such as chlorine channel I and inorganic phosphate transporter 1–5. Importantly, the downregulated genes network seemed to offer valuable complementary strategies focusing on the prioritizing of certain adaptive energy-trade off mechanism over growth. We proposed a model illustrating some distinct and overlapping molecular adaptive responses in the rice cultivar Sakha 102. We propose considering suggested results to improve stress-specific breeding and precision genome editing programs (ex: CRISPR-base genome editing) for developing efficient stress-resilient rice varieties.