title: Uncovering microRNA-mediated response to SO2 stress in Arabidopsis thaliana by deep sequencing.
abstract: Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a major air pollutant and has significant impacts on plants. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of gene expression regulators that play important roles in response to environmental stresses. In this study, deep sequencing was used for genome-wide identification of miRNAs and their expression profiles in response to SO2 stress in Arabidopsis thaliana shoots. A total of 27 conserved miRNAs and 5 novel miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed under SO2 stress. qRT-PCR analysis showed mostly negative correlation between miRNA accumulation and target gene mRNA abundance, suggesting regulatory roles of these miRNAs during SO2 exposure. The target genes of SO2-responsive miRNAs encode transcription factors and proteins that regulate auxin signaling and stress response, and the miRNAs-mediated suppression of these genes could improve plant resistance to SO2 stress. Promoter sequence analysis of genes encoding SO2-responsive miRNAs showed that stress-responsive and phytohormone-related cis-regulatory elements occurred frequently, providing additional evidence of the involvement of miRNAs in adaption to SO2 stress. This study represents a comprehensive expression profiling of SO2-responsive miRNAs in Arabidopsis and broads our perspective on the ubiquitous regulatory roles of miRNAs under stress conditions.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Meizhao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China. Electronic address: yihl@sxu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Huilan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yi
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D013458:Sulfur Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018749:RNA, Plant; D013458:Sulfur Dioxide
keywords: Arabidopsis; Deep sequencing; MicroRNA; Sulfur dioxide; Target gene