title: Deep sequencing of wheat sRNA transcriptome reveals distinct temporal expression pattern of miRNAs in response to heat, light and UV.
abstract: Understanding of plant adaptation to abiotic stresses has implications in plant breeding, especially in the context of climate change. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and short interfering RNAs play a crucial role in gene regulation. Here, wheat plants were exposed to one of the following stresses: continuous light, heat or ultraviolet radiations over five consecutive days and leaf tissues from three biological replicates were harvested at 0, 1, 2, 3, 7 and 10 days after treatment (DAT). A total of 72 small RNA libraries were sequenced on the Illumina platform generating ~524 million reads corresponding to ~129 million distinct tags from which 232 conserved miRNAs were identified. The expression levels of 1, 2 and 79 miRNAs were affected by ultraviolet radiation, continuous light and heat, respectively. Approximately 55% of the differentially expressed miRNAs were downregulated at 0 and 1 DAT including miR398, miR528 and miR156 that control mRNAs involved in activation of signal transduction pathways and flowering. Other putative targets included histone variants and methyltransferases. These results suggest a temporal miRNA-guided post-transcriptional regulation that enables wheat to respond to abiotic stresses, particularly heat. Designing novel wheat breeding strategies such as regulatory gene-based marker assisted selection depends on accurate identification of stress induced miRNAs.
authors.affiliation: Plant Science Department, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Raja
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ragupathy
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Sridhar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ravichandran
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Md Safiur Rahman
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Mahdi
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Morden Research and Development Centre, Morden, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Elsa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Reimer
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domaratzki
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa Research and Development Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cloutier
mesh_terms: D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods; D006358:Hot Temperature; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D059467:Transcriptome / Q000235:genetics*; D014908:Triticum / Q000235:genetics*; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018749:RNA, Plant