Metabolic shift and key genes unraveling salt tolerance mechanisms in lilies under alkaline salt stress

BACKGROUND: Alkaline salt stress significantly impairs the growth and development of lilies. Although China has abundant wild lily resources, most species are highly sensitive to saline and alkaline stress, leading to a lack of salt-tolerant varieties. Currently, studies on the mechanisms of salt tolerance and salt-tolerance gene mining in lilies remain limited. RESULTS: stress with and without exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) pretreatment. It was found that the alkali tolerance of lily seedlings significantly increased with ABA pretreatment compared to those without ABA, suggesting that a small amount of ABA could mitigate the damage caused by alkaline salt stress. Nitro blue tetrazolium chloride staining confirmed that ABA pretreatment alleviated oxidative damage in stressed seedlings. RNA-sequencing identified 2958 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in L. asiaticum and 25 927 in L. davidii var. willmottiae, with 1338 commonly expressed genes. DEGs were mainly enriched in organic and cellular metabolism processes. Weighted correlation network analysis revealed lily alkaline salt stress responses primarily involve phytohormone signaling, mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling and starch-sucrose metabolism. CONCLUSION: These findings provided valuable insights into the salt stress-related genes and metabolic pathways in lilies, aiding in the exploration of salt tolerance mechanisms, screening for salt tolerance genes and breeding of new salt-tolerant lily varieties. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.