{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T05:04:17Z","timestamp":1789362257706,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789344000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Plant Sci."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Soil salinity severely compromises rice (\n                      <jats:italic>Oryza sativa<\/jats:italic>\n                      L.) growth and grain yield by disrupting ionic and osmotic homeostasis. Although transcriptome profiling has advanced understanding of salt-stress responses in rice, the conservation of co-expression networks across genetic backgrounds and the relationship between network connectivity and transcriptional induction remain poorly characterized.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We performed integrated RNA sequencing and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) on three japonica rice varieties under control (0 mM), moderate (85.6 mM), and severe (136.9 mM) NaCl stress.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      All three varieties exhibited basal salt tolerance. Differential expression analysis identified 2,067 and 4,900 non-redundant differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under moderate and severe stress, with 205 and 1,093 DEGs shared across the three varieties, respectively. WGCNA identified 32 co-expression modules. The brown module showed the strongest dose-dependent response to salt stress and was enriched in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, plant hormone signal transduction, and MAPK signaling; its eigengene was highly concordant across varieties (mean r = 0.987), consistent with a shared leaf-level transcriptional program. Across brown-module genes, intramodular connectivity and salt-induced fold change were positively but only moderately correlated (Pearson r = 0.377):\n                      <jats:italic>OsDREB1A<\/jats:italic>\n                      was the most connected gene but not the most strongly induced, whereas\n                      <jats:italic>LOC_Os10g35080<\/jats:italic>\n                      was the most strongly induced yet ranked 14th in connectivity. In the 15-node hyperosmotic salinity response subnetwork, no single hub dominated, and\n                      <jats:italic>OsDREB1A<\/jats:italic>\n                      occupied a peripheral position.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Connectivity and induction thus reflect complementary aspects of the salt-stress response, and candidate hub genes for molecular breeding should be prioritized by both criteria jointly, followed by validation across diverse genetic backgrounds.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpls.2026.1914311","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,14]],"date-time":"2026-09-14T04:33:15Z","timestamp":1789360395000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Aconserved salt-stress co-expression network in japonica rice reveals partially dissociated hub gene connectivity and transcriptional induction"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Kun","family":"Xie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Medium-Term Genebank for Drought-Resistant and Saline-Alkali Tolerant Crop Germplasm Resources (Jinan), National Saline-Alkali Tolerant Crop Germplasm Resources Nursery (Dongying), Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences","place":["Jinan, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Song","family":"Hou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Medium-Term Genebank for Drought-Resistant and Saline-Alkali Tolerant Crop Germplasm Resources (Jinan), National Saline-Alkali Tolerant Crop Germplasm Resources Nursery (Dongying), Institute of Crop Germplasm Resources, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences","place":["Jinan, 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