Prolonged heat stress in Brassica napus during flowering negatively impacts yield and alters glucosinolate and sugars metabolism

Oilseed rape (Brassica napus), one of the most important sources of vegetable oil worldwide, is adversely impacted by heat wave-induced temperature stress especially during its yield determining reproductive stages. However, the underlying molecular and biochemical mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the transcriptomic and metabolomic responses to heat stress in B. napus plants exposed to a gradual increase of temperature reaching 30 {degrees}C in the day and 24 {degrees}C at night for a period of 6 days. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to quantify the content of carbohydrates and glucosinolates respectively. RNA-Seq analysis of flower buds showed a total of 1892, 3253, 4553, 4165 and 1713 genes were differentially expressed at days 0, 1, 2, 6 and 12 after treatment respectively. Results showed that heat stress reduced yield and altered oil composition. Heat stress also increased the content of carbohydrate (Glucose, Fructose and Sucrose) and aliphatic glucosinolates (Gluconapin, Progoitrin) in the leaves but decreased the content of the indolic glucosinolate (Glucobrassicin). Heat treatment resulted in down regulation of genes involved in respiratory metabolism namely Glycolysis, Pentose Phosphate Pathway, Citrate Cycle and Oxidative Phosphorylation especially after 48 hrs of heat stress. Other down regulated genes mapped to sugars transporters, nitrogen transport and storage, cell wall modification and methylation. In contrast, up regulated genes mapped to small heat shock proteins (sHSP20) and other heat shock factors that play important roles in thermotolerance. Furthermore, two genes were chosen from the pathways involved in the heat stress response to further examine their expression using real time RT-qPCR. Taken together, the results of this study demonstrated that the changes in carbohydrates and glucosinolates metabolism and transport under heat stress is one of the response mechanisms employed by the plant under heat stress conditions. Moreover, the transcriptomic data will be useful for further understanding the molecular mechanisms of B. napus plant tolerance to heat stress and provide a basis for breeding heat-tolerant varieties.