Genome-Wide Expression Profiles of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) in Response to Drought Stress

Abstract Drought is the main environmental factor impairing hemp growth and yield. In order to decipher the molecular responses of hemp to drought stress, transcriptome changes of drought-stressed hemp (DS1 and DS2), compared to well-watered control hemp (CK1 and CK2), were studied with RNA-Seq technology. RNA-Seq generated 9.83, 11.30, 11.66, and 11.31 M clean reads in the CK1, CK2, DS1, and DS2 libraries, respectively. A total of 1292 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 409 (31.66%) upregulated and 883 (68.34%) downregulated