{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T19:23:14Z","timestamp":1791400994724,"version":"4.3.3"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,23]],"date-time":"2025-01-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1737590400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["32071757"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32071757"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Plants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Nitric oxide (NO) breaks a seed\u2019s dormancy and stimulates germination by signaling. However, the key physiological metabolic pathways and molecular regulatory mechanisms are still unclear. Therefore, this study used physiological, transcriptomic, and metabolomics methods to analyze the key genes and metabolites involved in the NO regulation of plant embryo germination and their potential regulatory mechanisms. The physiological analysis results indicate that the appropriate concentration of NO increased the content of NO and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in cells, stimulated the synthesis of ethylene and jasmonic acid (JA), induced a decrease in abscisic acid (ABA) content, antagonistic to the gibberellin (GA3) effect, and promoted embryo germination and subsequent seedling growth. However, the high concentrations of NO caused excessive accumulation of H2O2, destroyed the reactive oxygen species (ROS) balance, and inhibited embryo germination and seedling growth. The combined analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics showed that the genes related to phenylpropanoid (phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, trans-cinnamate 4-monooxygenase, ferulate-5-hydroxylase, coniferyl-alcohol glucosyltransferase), and flavonoid synthesis (10 genes such as CHS) were significantly up-regulated during embryo germination. The high concentration of exogenous NO inhibited embryo germination by up-regulating the expression of 4-coumaric acid coenzyme A ligase (4CL) and negatively regulating the expression of flavonoid synthesis genes. This suggests that NO concentration-dependently regulates phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis, thereby affecting ROS metabolism and hormone levels, and ultimately regulates the dormancy and germination of Sorbus pohuashanensis embryos.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/plants14030344","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,23]],"date-time":"2025-01-23T12:24:09Z","timestamp":1737635049000},"page":"344","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Integrating Physiology, Transcriptome, and Metabolomics Reveals the Potential Mechanism of Nitric Oxide Concentration-Dependent Regulation of Embryo Germination in Sorbus pohuashanensis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6042-7394","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Caihong","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yue","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9669-3216","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ling","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China"},{"name":"College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100091, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2216","DOI":"10.1111\/ppl.13572","article-title":"High-throughput Screening of Secondary Metabolites by Sorbus pohuashanensis Cells under Environmental Stress using UHPLC-QTOF Combined with AntDAS","volume":"173","author":"Yang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Physiol. 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