The regulation of differential gene expression in Cannabis sativa L. was investigated under low-phosphorus stress treatment for 75 days. The results of transcriptional sequencing showed that 1,242 differentially expressed genes (697 upregulated and 545 downregulated) were identified 75 days after low-P treatment. The results of GO functional enrichment analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes were mainly concentrated in biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions. Results of the enrichment analysis of the KEGG pathway, which comprised three functional classes of function, showed that these differentially expressed genes were involved in cellular processes, environmental information processing, genetic information processing, metabolism, and organic systems. A total of 1,356 expression genes from 60 transcription factor families were annotated, most of which belonged to MYB, AP2-EREBP, BHLH, NAC, MADS, ABI3VP1, C3H, FAR1, WRKY, and GRAS. A total of 143 genes directly related to P and 25 genes related to auxin were identified. These differentially expressed genes revealed the transcriptional regulation pathway involved in low-phosphorus tolerance in C. sativa and provide a basis for the cloning and functional verification of genes related to low-phosphorus tolerance in this species.
