{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T15:03:50Z","timestamp":1787065430541,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,23]],"date-time":"2022-03-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1647993600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["BioTech"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Drought is one of the most important threats to plants and agriculture. Here, the effects of four drought levels (90%, 55%, 40%, and 25% field capacity) on the relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll and carotenoids levels, and mRNA gene expression of metabolic enzymes in Thymus vulgaris (as sensitive to drought) and Thymus kotschyanus (as a drought-tolerant species) were evaluated. The physiological results showed that the treatment predominantly affected the RWC, chlorophyll, and carotenoids content. The gene expression analysis demonstrated that moderate and severe drought stress had greater effects on the expression of histone deacetylase-6 (HDA-6) and acetyl-CoA synthetase in both Thymus species. Pyruvate decarboxylase-1 (PDC-1) was upregulated in Thymus vulgaris at high drought levels. Finally, succinyl CoA ligase was not affected by drought stress in either species. Data confirmed water stress is able to alter the gene expression of specific enzymes. Furthermore, our results suggest that PDC-1 expression is independent from HDA-6 and the increased expression of ACS can be due to the activation of new pathways involved in carbohydrate production.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biotech11020008","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,23]],"date-time":"2022-03-23T12:20:25Z","timestamp":1648038025000},"page":"8","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":29,"title":["Physiological and Molecular Aspects of Two Thymus Species Differently Sensitive to Drought Stress"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Mohsen","family":"Ashrafi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45195-313, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammad-Reza","family":"Azimi-Moqadam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45195-313, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ehsan","family":"MohseniFard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45195-313, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1463-443X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Farid","family":"Shekari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan, Zanjan 45195-313, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hossein","family":"Jafary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Division of Plant Protection, Zanjan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Centre, AREEO, Zanjan 45195-313, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3340-7619","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Parviz","family":"Moradi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Division of Natural Resources, Zanjan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Centre, AREEO, Zanjan 45195-313, Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mariachiara","family":"Pucci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9161-3475","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giulia","family":"Abate","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8862-2896","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea","family":"Mastinu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1203","DOI":"10.1093\/treephys\/tpt080","article-title":"Investigating the drought-stress response of hybrid poplar genotypes by metabolite profiling","volume":"34","author":"Barchet","year":"2014","journal-title":"Tree Physiol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"657","DOI":"10.17129\/botsci.709","article-title":"Key plant products and common mechanisms utilized by plants in water deficit stress responses","volume":"94","author":"Moradi","year":"2016","journal-title":"Bot. 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