Laboratory for Genetic Improvement of High Efficiency Horticultural Crops in Jiangsu Province, Institute of Vegetable Crop, Jiangsu Province Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Department of Food Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
BMC Plant Biol. 2020 Mar 6;20(1):107. doi: 10.1186/s12870-020-2313-x.
Both drought and heat stress are serious global problems, leading to agricultural production loss. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in plant species responding to individual drought and heat stress. However, the miRNAs and mRNAs in association with combined drought and heat in crops like tomato remains unclear.
We studied the crosstalk of miRNAs and their target genes in tomato plants grown under simultaneous drought and heat stress that frequently happen in field conditions. In total, 335 known miRNAs representing 55 miRNA families and 430 potential novel miRNAs were identified in Solanum lycopersicum L. using small RNA deep sequencing. Through expression analysis, miRNAs in association with drought, heat and the combination of these were investigated. In total, 61, 74 and 37 miRNAs were differentially regulated for combination (of both stresses) vs control, combination vs drought and combination vs heat, respectively. Target genes with different expression levels were found using degradome sequencing, which were mainly involved in transcription factor activity, sequence-specific DNA binding, transcription, regulation of transcription, nucleus, DNA binding etc. The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) results confirmed the accuracy of sequencing.
Our study serves as valuable knowledge on how crop adapted to combined drought and heat stress by regulating miRNAs and mRNAs, which provide information for crop improvement to deal with future climate changes.
干旱和热应激都是严重的全球性问题，导致农业生产损失。MicroRNAs（miRNAs）在植物物种对单个干旱和热应激的响应中发挥重要作用。然而，关于番茄等作物中与联合干旱和热应激相关的 miRNAs 和 mRNAs 仍不清楚。
我们研究了在田间条件下经常发生的同时干旱和热应激下生长的番茄植物中 miRNAs 及其靶基因的串扰。使用小 RNA 深度测序，总共在番茄中鉴定了 335 个已知的 miRNA，代表 55 个 miRNA 家族和 430 个潜在的新 miRNA。通过表达分析，研究了与干旱、热应激以及两者组合相关的 miRNAs。总共，有 61、74 和 37 个 miRNAs 分别在组合（两种胁迫）与对照、组合与干旱和组合与热应激之间差异调节。使用降解组测序发现了具有不同表达水平的靶基因，主要涉及转录因子活性、序列特异性 DNA 结合、转录、转录调节、核、DNA 结合等。定量实时聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）结果证实了测序的准确性。
我们的研究为作物通过调节 miRNAs 和 mRNAs 适应联合干旱和热应激提供了有价值的知识，为应对未来气候变化的作物改良提供了信息。
