The Impact of Nutrient Solution Electrical Conductivity on Leaf Transcriptome Contributing to the Fruit Quality of Cucumber Grown in Coir Cultivation

Summary

Soilless cultivation is increasingly utilized in supplying essential nutrients for greenhouse crops. However, the impact of coir cultivation under varying electrical conductivity (EC) conditions on cucumber growth and fruit quality, particularly through the regulation of gene expression during the vegetative stage, remains uncertain. In this study, we performed metabolic measurements on cucumber in both vegetative and reproductive stages under three different EC conditions and found metabolic products such as some primary metabolites (cellulose, many uncharged amino acids) and some secondary metabolites (rutin, cucurbitacin B) accumulated the most under EC of 5 dS·m−1. Next, we conducted transcriptome profiling in cucumber leaves, revealing that the function of genes significantly regulate