Mitostasis is the central biological hub underlying the response of plants to cadmium stress

Cadmium (Cd) is one of the most toxic heavy metals faced by plants and threatens human health through the food chain. There are many similarities across species in response to cadmium stress, yet understanding of the underlying conserved molecular mechanisms is still lacking. Here, we obtained a conserved set of genes involved in the response to Cd stress in typical monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants (Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa) based on analyses of the temporal-spatial expression patterns and phylogenetic relationships of genes and found that the underlying molecular pathways are functionally conserved. We also developed a workflow using multi-omics data from over 10,000 samples of over 80 projects and built a co-functional network of genes involved in the response to Cd stress with 7586 conserved functions. We showed that mitostasis is the central biological hub underlying the response to Cd stress. The differential enrichment of transcription factor-binding sites in regulatory networks was mainly observed for a few conserved regulators of Cd stress. Population-based analyses revealed that networks of mitostasis-related genes driven by these regulators (e.g. bHLH) are conserved across the plants. Our works provide new insights into the cross-species conserved mechanisms underlying the response to Cd stress using multi-omics data. [Display omitted] •The pathways underlying the response to Cd stress are conserved across species.•A co-functional network was built based on data from nearly 10,000 samples.•Mitostasis is the central biological hub underlying the response to Cd stress.•Few conserved TFs involved in the response to Cd stress maintain mitostasis.•These TF-driven regulatory networks respond to Cd stress across the plant kingdom.