De novo transcriptome sequencing and gene expression profiling of sweetpotato leaves during low temperature stress

Sweetpotato [ Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] is one of the most important crops for food, feed, industrial material, and bio-energy resource. However, since it originated in tropical regions, sweetpotato exhibits limited cold tolerance, hindering its cultivation in low-temperature areas. To comprehend the sweetpotato response to chilling stress, de novo transcriptome assembly was conducted on leaves from two sweetpotato cultivars: the cold-tolerant Liaohanshu 21 and the cold-sensitive Shenshu 28, exposed to low-temperature stress for 3 h and 24 h. 787.24 million raw reads and 763.44 million clean reads were obtained, 60.60–66.06% of clean reads successfully mapped to the reference database across all 18 libraries. 2524 unigenes were identified as transcript factors and classified into 55 families in Plant Transcription Factor Database (PlantTFDB) and 4671 unigenes were matched to 24 groups in Plant Resistance Gene Database (PRGdb). In Liaohanshu 21, 3618 genes and 8391 genes exhibited significant differential expression 3 h and 24 h of low-temperature exposure, respectively. In Shenshu 28, 13,394 genes and 11,627 genes displayed substantial differential expression after 3 h and 24 h of low-temperature exposure, respectively. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were further analyzed using Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG) database. DEGs related to “active oxygen scavenging systems”, “ lipid metabolism ”, and “ plant hormone signal transduction ” were potentially associated with sweetpotato’s cold resistance. This research offers insights into the mechanisms and genes involved in cold stress in sweetpotato’s response to cold stress and will contribute valuable information for cold-tolerant breeding of sweetpotato.