Laboratory of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
BMC Plant Biol. 2023 Oct 21;23(1):506. doi: 10.1186/s12870-023-04515-1.
Tef (Eragrostis tef) is a C plant known for its tiny, nutritious, and gluten-free grains. It contains higher levels of protein, vitamins, and essential minerals like calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) than common cereals. Tef is cultivated in diverse ecological zones under diverse climatic conditions. Studies have shown that tef has great diversity in withstanding environmental challenges such as drought. Drought is a major abiotic stress severely affecting crop productivity and becoming a bottleneck to global food security. Here, we used in silico-based functional genomic analysis to identify drought-responsive genes in tef and validated their expression using quantitative RT-PCR.
We identified about 729 drought-responsive genes so far reported in six crop plants, including rice, wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, pearl millet, and the model plant Arabidopsis, and reported 20 genes having high-level of GO terms related to drought, and significantly enriched in several biological and molecular function categories. These genes were found to play diverse roles, including water and fluid transport, resistance to high salt, cold, and drought stress, abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, de novo DNA methylation, and transcriptional regulation in tef and other crops. Our analysis revealed substantial differences in the conserved domains of some tef genes from well-studied rice orthologs. We further analyzed the expression of sixteen tef orthologs using quantitative RT-PCR in response to PEG-induced osmotic stress.
The findings showed differential regulation of some drought-responsive genes in shoots, roots, or both tissues. Hence, the genes identified in this study may be promising candidates for trait improvement in crops via transgenic or gene-editing technologies.
特夫（Eragrostis tef）是一种 C4 植物，以其微小、营养丰富且不含麸质的谷物而闻名。它含有比普通谷物更高水平的蛋白质、维生素以及必需矿物质，如钙（Ca）、铁（Fe）、铜（Cu）和锌（Zn）。特夫在不同的生态区和气候条件下种植。研究表明，特夫在耐受干旱等环境挑战方面具有很大的多样性。干旱是一种主要的非生物胁迫，严重影响作物生产力，成为全球粮食安全的瓶颈。在这里，我们使用基于计算机的功能基因组分析来鉴定特夫中对干旱有反应的基因，并使用定量 RT-PCR 验证它们的表达。
迄今为止，我们已经从包括水稻、小麦、玉米、大麦、高粱、珍珠粟和模式植物拟南芥在内的六种作物中鉴定出约 729 个已报道的干旱响应基因，并报告了 20 个具有高水平与干旱相关的 GO 术语的基因，并在几个生物学和分子功能类别中显著富集。这些基因在特夫和其他作物中发挥着多种作用，包括水和流体运输、抵抗高盐、寒冷和干旱胁迫、脱落酸（ABA）信号转导、从头 DNA 甲基化和转录调控。我们的分析揭示了一些特夫基因与经过充分研究的水稻同源基因的保守结构域之间存在显著差异。我们进一步使用定量 RT-PCR 分析了十六个特夫同源基因在 PEG 诱导的渗透胁迫下的表达。
研究结果表明，一些干旱响应基因在地上部、根部或两者组织中的表达存在差异调控。因此，本研究中鉴定的基因可能是通过转基因或基因编辑技术改善作物特性的有前途的候选基因。
