GSE125894
Comparison of transcriptomic responses to individual and combinatorial copper and iron deficiencies in Arabidopsis thaliana rosettes.
Purpose: plants exposed to multiple simultaneous adverse growth conditions trigger molecular responses that differ from the sum of those to individual stressors. Copper and iron are fundamental elements required for proper photosynthesis, energy production, DNA metabolism and hormone sensing, among all. Therefore, copper and iron deprivation limits plant yield. In natural environments, simultaneous deficiency to copper and iron can occur. As part of a multiple high-throughput study to identify combinatorial responses to both copper and iron deficiency, RNA-Seq profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana rosette leaves exposed to copper and/or iron deficiencies have been conducted. Methods: RNA-Seq libraries were prepared from total RNA of whole rosettes of 20-d-old plants treated for control conditions, copper deficiency, iron deficiency or simultaneous deficiency to both copper and iron for 10 d and sequenced using Illumina protocols. 2 independent plants were RNA-Seq-sequenced per treatment. Adaptor sequences were removed with Trimmomatic and the resulting reads mapped to the Arabidopsis genome (Araport11) with Tophat 2.1.1. Read counts and differential expression analysis were conducted with Cufflinks/Cuffdiff. Results: for RNA-Seq analysis a Tophat/Cuffdiff pipeline was designed. Each sample provided app. 9 million reads. After applying a cut-off of absolute log2(FC) = 1 to controls and a FDR = 0.05, copper deficiency led to 83 differentially expressed genes, followed by 1708 during iron deficiency, while the combinatorial treatment altered 2056 transcripts. Comparison of differential expressed genes among treatments indicated that double deficiency led to app. 45% rewiring of all detected transcriptional changes. Conclusions: our data support that combinatorial copper and iron deficiency treatments in plants triggers transcriptional responses that differ from those to single deficiencies. Overall design: Transcriptome profiling of 20-d-old rosette leaves from Arabidopsis grown under standard conditions, copper deficiency, iron deficiency and the double deficiency during 10 d were sequenced using Illumina Sequencing protocols in duplicates.