Identification of nitric oxide mediated defense signaling and its microRNA mediated regulation during infection in black pepper.

UNLABELLED

Nitric oxide plays a significant role in the defense signaling during pathogen interaction in plants. Quick wilt disease is a devastating disease of black pepper, and leads to sudden mortality of pepper vines in plantations. In this study, the role of nitric oxide was studied during infection in black pepper variety Panniyur-1. Nitric oxide was detected from the different histological sections of infected leaves. Furthermore, the genome-wide transcriptome analysis characterized typical domain architect and structural features of nitrate reductase () and nitric oxide associated 1 () gene that are involved in nitric oxide biosynthesis in black pepper. Despite the upregulation of nitrate reductase (), a reduced expression of was detected in the infected black pepper leaf. Subsequent sRNAome-assisted in silico analysis revealed possible microRNA mediated regulation of mRNAs. Furthermore, sRNA/miRNA mediated cleavage on mRNA was validated through modified 5' RLM RACE experiments. Several hormone-responsive cis-regulatory elements involved in stress response was detected from the promoter regions of and genes. Our results revealed the role of nitric oxide during stress response of infection in black pepper, and key genes involved in nitric oxide biosynthesis and their post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-024-01414-z.