scholarly journals Identification of novel drought-responsive miRNA regulatory network of drought stress response in common vetch (Vicia sativa)

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1111-1121
Author(s):  
Yongqun Zhu ◽  
Qiuxu Liu ◽  
Wenzhi Xu ◽  
Li Yao ◽  
Xie Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Drought is among the most important natural disasters with severe effects on animals and plants. MicroRNAs are a class of noncoding RNAs that play a crucial role in plant growth, development, and response to stress factors, including drought. However, the microRNAs in drought responses in common vetch (Vicia sativa), an annual herbaceous leguminous plant commonly used for forage by including it in mixed seeding during winter and spring, have not been characterized. To explore the microRNAs’ response to drought in common vetch, we sequenced 10 small RNA (sRNA) libraries by the next-generation sequencing technology. We obtained 379 known miRNAs belonging to 38 families and 47 novel miRNAs. The two groups had varying numbers of differentially expressed miRNAs: 85 in the comparison group D5 vs C5 and 38 in the comparison group D3 vs C3. Combined analysis of mRNA and miRNA in the same samples under drought treatment identified 318 different target genes of 123 miRNAs. Functional annotation of the target genes revealed that the miRNAs regulate drought-responsive genes, such as leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase-encoding genes (LRR-RLKs), ABC transporter G family member 1 (ABCG1), and MAG2-interacting protein 2 (MIP2). The genes were involved in various pathways, including cell wall biosynthesis, reactive oxygen removal, and protein transport. The findings in this study provide new insights into the miRNA-mediated regulatory networks of drought stress response in common vetch.

Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muthusamy ◽  
Yoon ◽  
Kim ◽  
Jeong ◽  
Lee

The emerging evidence has shown that plant serine/arginine-rich (SR) proteins play a crucial role in abiotic stress responses by regulating the alternative splicing (AS) of key genes. Recently, we have shown that drought stress enhances the expression of SR45a (also known as SR-like 3) in Brassica rapa. Herein, we unraveled the hitherto unknown functions of BrSR45a in drought stress response by comparing the phenotypes, chlorophyll a fluorescence and splicing patterns of the drought-responsive genes of Arabidopsis BrSR45a overexpressors (OEs), homozygous mutants (SALK_052345), and controls (Col-0). Overexpression and loss of function did not result in aberrant phenotypes; however, the overexpression of BrSR45a was positively correlated with drought tolerance and the stress recovery rate in an expression-dependent manner. Moreover, OEs showed a higher drought tolerance index during seed germination (38.16%) than the control lines. Additionally, the overexpression of BrSR45a induced the expression of the drought stress-inducible genes RD29A, NCED3, and DREB2A under normal conditions. To further illustrate the molecular linkages between BrSR45a and drought tolerance, we investigated the AS patterns of key drought-tolerance and BrSR45a interacting genes in OEs, mutants, and controls under both normal and drought conditions. The splicing patterns of DCP5, RD29A, GOLS1, AKR, U2AF, and SDR were different between overexpressors and mutants under normal conditions. Furthermore, drought stress altered the splicing patterns of NCED2, SQE, UPF1, U4/U6-U5 tri-snRNP-associated protein, and UPF1 between OEs and mutants, indicating that both overexpression and loss of function differently influenced the splicing patterns of target genes. This study revealed that BrSR45a regulates the drought stress response via the alternative splicing of target genes in a concentration-dependent manner.


2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 1023-1034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deguo Han ◽  
Haibin Ding ◽  
Lijing Chai ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Zhaoyuan Zhang ◽  
...  

WRKY transcription factors are involved in stress responses in plants; however, their roles in abiotic stresses are still not well known in Malus plants. In the present study, a WRKY gene was isolated from Malus baccata (L.) Borkh and designated as MbWRKY1. Subcellular localization revealed that MbWRKY1 was localized in the nucleus. The expression levels of MbWRKY1 were up-regulated by dehydration, salinity, and ABA treatments in M. baccata seedlings. When MbWRKY1 was introduced into tobacco, it improved drought stress tolerance in transgenic plants. Under the drought treatment, transgenic plants had higher contents of chlorophyll, proline, relative water, AsA, and GSH than wild-type (WT) plants. Compared with WT plants, the overexpression of MbWRKY1 in transgenic tobacco also led to decreased levels of H2O2, MDA, and elecrolyte leakage when dealing with drought stress. There were increased activities of POD, CAT, SOD, and APX in transgenic tobaccos, especially when dealing with drought treatment. Moreover, the MbWRKY1 transgenic plants enhanced the expressions of oxidative stress response (NtPOD, NtCAT, NtSOD, and NtAPX) and stress-related genes (NtP5CS and NtLEA5) when dealing with drought stress. These results suggest that the MbWRKY1 gene plays a positive regulatory role in drought stress response.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuena Liu ◽  
Song Gao ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Kun Xu

Abstract Background: Welsh onions are often affected by stressful environments, such as high light and drought, during summer cultivation, which hinders their growth. To date, few studies have focused on leaf photosynthesis of Welsh onions during summer. We used carbon dioxide assimilation and OJIP transient and MR curves to analyze the photosynthetic characteristics of Welsh onions. Results: The results showed that strong light and drought could lead to a decrease in leaf pigment content. Simple high light stress caused a decrease in the net photosynthetic rate through stomatal limitation, while the simple drought treatment and the two stress factors combined caused a nonstomatal limitation. PSII energy distribution indicated that strong light and drought stress reduced the photochemical quantum efficiency of PSII. OJIP curve analysis showed that FO and FJ were increased, Fm was decreased, and a distinct K-phase was induced. In addition, OJIP parameters, including RC/CSO, TRO/ABS, ETO/TRO, and PIABS, were significantly reduced. MR analysis showed that strong light and drought stress blocked MR transients, leading to a gradual decrease in VPSI and VPSII-PSI. Conclusions: In general, the photosynthesis of Welsh onion was inhibited by high light and drought, which destroyed the receptor and donor side of PSII and reduced the electron transport capacity of PSII and PSI.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanlin Ma ◽  
Jing Cao ◽  
Qiaoqiao Chen ◽  
Jiahan He ◽  
Zhibin Liu ◽  
...  

Drought is a major limiting factor for plant growth and crop productivity. Many Calcineurin B-like interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) play crucial roles in plant adaptation to environmental stresses. It is particularly essential to find the phosphorylation targets of CIPKs and to study the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this study, we demonstrate that CIPK11 acts as a novel component to modulate drought stress in plants. The overexpression of CIPK11 (CIPK11OE) in Arabidopsis resulted in the decreased tolerance of plant to drought stress. When compared to wild type plants, CIPK11OE plants exhibited higher leaf water loss and higher content of reactive oxygen species (ROS) after drought treatment. Additionally, a yeast two hybrid screening assay by using CIPK11 as a bait captures Di19-3, a Cys2/His2-type zinc-finger transcription factor that is involved in drought stress, as a new interactor of CIPK11. Biochemical analysis revealed that CIPK11 interacted with Di19-3 in vivo and it was capable of phosphorylating Di19-3 in vitro. Genetic studies revealed that the function of CIPK11 in regulating drought stress was dependent on Di19-3. The transcripts of stress responsive genes, such as RAB18, RD29A, RD29B, and DREB2A were down-regulated in the CIPK11OE plants. Whereas overexpression of CIPK11 in di19-3 mutant background, expression levels of those marker genes were not significantly altered. Taken together, our results demonstrate that CIPK11 partly mediates the drought stress response by regulating the transcription factor Di19-3.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaxing Zhou ◽  
Wei Zhou ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
Peng Liu ◽  
Zhigang Li

Abstract Background: DREB transcription factors regulate the expression of stress-responsive genes, and thus play an important role in plant stress response to abiotic stresses. To obtain a global expression profile of soybean DREB genes under drought stress, we first explored the soybean genome to identify DREB family genes, and then analyzed a set of transcriptome data of drought stress to verify their involvement in stress response. Results: We identified 73 DREB family genes from the soybean genome. These DREB genes were further divided into six subgroups basing on the phylogenetic analysis. Gene structure analysis showed that most DREB genes have a single exon. Soybean DREB genes were unevenly distributed on 19 chromosomes. We further identified 186 putative target genes of soybean DREB proteins and found that these targeted genes were significantly enriched in metabolism pathways of fructose and mannose. The analysis of transcriptome data after 4 hours, 8 hours, and 12 hours of drought, the expression of DREB genes were constantly increased, indicating that the DREB family genes responded to drought stress. Conclusion: We identified 73 DREB genes from soybean genome and analyzed their features including gene structures, protein motifs, and putative target genes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunjuan Li ◽  
Caixia Yan ◽  
Quanxi Sun ◽  
Juan Wang ◽  
Cuiling Yuan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors (TFs) are one of the largest gene families in plants. They regulate gene expression through interactions with specific motifs in target genes. bHLH TFs are not only universally involved in plant growth but also play an important role in plant responses to abiotic stress. However, most members of this family have not been functionally characterized. Results Here, we characterized the function of a bHLH TF in the peanut, AhHLH112, in response to drought stress. AhHLH112 is localized in the nucleus and it was induced by drought stress. The overexpression of this gene improves the drought tolerance of transgenic plants both in seedling and adult stages. Compared to wild-type plants, the transgenic plants accumulated less reactive oxygen species (ROS), accompanied by increased activity and transcript levels of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase). In addition, the WT plants demonstrated higher MDA concentration levels and higher water loss rate than the transgenic plants under drought treatment. The Yeast one-hybrid result also demonstrates that AhbHLH112 directly and specifically binds to and activates the promoter of the peroxidase (POD) gene. Besides, overexpression of AhHLH112 improved ABA level under drought condition, and elevated the expression of genes associated with ABA biosynthesis and ABA responding, including AtNCED3 and AtRD29A. Conclusions Drawing on the results of our experiments, we propose that, by improving ROS-scavenging ability, at least in part through the regulation of POD -mediated H2O2 homeostasis, and possibly participates in ABA-dependent stress-responding pathway, AhbHLH112 acts as a positive factor in drought stress tolerance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 927-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Peng ◽  
Yuewu Liu ◽  
Xinbo Chen

Background: Drought is one of the most damaging and widespread abiotic stresses that can severely limit the rice production. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) act as a promising tool for improving the drought tolerance of rice and have become a hot spot in recent years. Objective: In order to further extend the understanding of miRNAs, the functions of miRNAs in rice under drought stress are analyzed by bioinformatics. Method: In this study, we integrated miRNAs and genes transcriptome data of rice under the drought stress. Some bioinformatics methods were used to reveal the functions of miRNAs in rice under drought stress. These methods included target genes identification, differentially expressed miRNAs screening, enrichment analysis of DEGs, network constructions for miRNA-target and target-target proteins interaction. Results: (1) A total of 229 miRNAs with differential expression in rice under the drought stress, corresponding to 73 rice miRNAs families, were identified. (2) 1035 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, which included 357 up-regulated genes, 542 down-regulated genes and 136 up/down-regulated genes. (3) The network of regulatory relationships between 73 rice miRNAs families and 1035 DEGs was constructed. (4) 25 UP_KEYWORDS terms of DEGs, 125 GO terms and 7 pathways were obtained. (5) The protein-protein interaction network of 1035 DEGs was constructed. Conclusion: (1) MiRNA-regulated targets in rice might mainly involve in a series of basic biological processes and pathways under drought conditions. (2) MiRNAs in rice might play critical roles in Lignin degradation and ABA biosynthesis. (3) MiRNAs in rice might play an important role in drought signal perceiving and transduction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Baomei Wang ◽  
Can Liu ◽  
Dengfeng Zhang ◽  
Chunmei He ◽  
Juren Zhang ◽  
...  

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