Central Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2019 Oct 10;14(10):e0223217. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223217. eCollection 2019.
The adaptation of crops to acid soils is needed for the maintenance of food security in a sustainable way, as decreasing fertilizers use and mechanical interventions in the soil would favor the reduction of agricultural practices' environmental impact. Phosphate deficiency and the presence of reactive aluminum affect vital processes to the plant in this soil, mostly water and nutrient absorption. From this, the understanding of the molecular response to these stresses can foster strategies for genetic improvement, so the aim was to broadly analyze the transcriptional variations in Poupulus spp. in response to these abiotic stresses, as a plant model for woody crops. A co-expression network was constructed among 3,180 genes differentially expressed in aluminum-stressed plants with 34,988 connections. Of this total, 344 genes presented two-fold transcriptional variation and the group of genes associated with those regulated after 246 hours of stress had higher number of connections per gene, with some already characterized genes related to this stress as main hubs. Another co-expression network was made up of 8,380 connections between 550 genes regulated by aluminum stress and phosphate deficiency, in which 380 genes had similar profile in both stresses and only eight with transcriptional variation higher than 20%. All the transcriptomic data are presented here with functional enrichment and homology comparisons with already characterized genes in another species that are related to the explored stresses, in order to provide a broad analysis of the co-opted responses for both the stresses as well as some specificity. This approach improves our understanding regarding the plants adaptation to acid soils and may contribute to strategies of crop genetic improvement for this condition that is widely present in regions of high agricultural activity.
为了以可持续的方式维护粮食安全，需要使作物适应酸性土壤，减少化肥使用和土壤机械干预将有利于减少农业实践对环境的影响。在这种土壤中，磷缺乏和活性铝的存在会影响植物的重要过程，主要是水分和养分的吸收。因此，了解植物对这些胁迫的分子反应可以促进遗传改良策略，因此本研究旨在广泛分析杨树属植物对这些非生物胁迫的转录变化，作为木本作物的植物模型。在受铝胁迫的植物中，构建了 3180 个差异表达基因与 34988 个连接的共表达网络。在这总共 344 个基因表现出两倍的转录变化，与那些在应激 246 小时后被调节的基因相关的基因组具有每个基因更高的连接数，其中一些已经确定的与这种应激相关的基因作为主要枢纽。另一个共表达网络由 550 个受铝胁迫和磷缺乏调节的基因之间的 8380 个连接组成，其中 380 个基因在两种胁迫下具有相似的表达模式，只有 8 个基因的转录变化高于 20%。所有的转录组数据都在这里呈现，包括功能富集和与另一种物种中已鉴定的与所研究的应激相关的基因的同源性比较，以便对两种应激的共适应反应进行广泛分析，以及一些特异性分析。这种方法提高了我们对植物适应酸性土壤的理解，并可能有助于为这种在农业活动活跃地区广泛存在的条件制定作物遗传改良策略。
