High-throughput sequencing of small RNAs revealed the diversified cold-responsive pathways during cold stress in the wild banana (Musa itinerans)

Abstract

BackgroundCold stress is one of the most severe abiotic stresses affecting the banana production. Although some miRNAs have been identified, little is known about the role of miRNAs in response to cold stress in banana, and up to date, there is no report about the role of miRNAs in the response to cold stress in the plants of the cultivated or wild bananas.ResultHere, a cold-resistant line wild banana (Musa itinerans) from China was used to profile the cold-responsive miRNAs by RNA-seq during cold stress. Totally, 265 known mature miRNAs and 41 novel miRNAs were obtained. Cluster analysis of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs indicated that some miRNAs were specific for chilling or 0 °C treated responses, and most of them were reported to be cold-responsive; however, some were seldom reported to be cold-responsive in response to cold stress, e.g., miR395, miR408, miR172, suggesting that they maybe play key roles in response to cold stress. The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of DE miRNAs targets indicated that there existed diversified cold-responsive pathways, and miR172 was found likely to play a central coordinating role in response to cold stress, especially in the regulation of CK2 and the circadian rhythm. Finally, qPCR assays indicated the related targets were negatively regulated by the tested DE miRNAs during cold stress in the wild banana.ConclusionsIn this study, the profiling of miRNAs by RNA-seq in response to cold stress in the plants of the wild banana (Musa itinerans) was reported for the first time. The results showed that there existed diversified cold-responsive pathways, which provided insight into the roles of miRNAs during cold stress, and would be helpful for alleviating cold stress and cold-resistant breeding in bananas.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1483-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

MicroRNAs in Vitis vinifera cv. Chardonnay Are Differentially Expressed in Response to Diaporthe Species

“…The experimental strategy applied in this study was designed to investigate the profile of grapevine miRNAs in response to fungal infection in vitro because there are no unpredictable abiotic factors. Plant-pathogen interactions were entirely dissociated from the environment, which is usually used in the sRNAs profiling of stressed plants [57,58]. Ma et al [58] also found that the fungal sRNA enrichment was lower in planta than during in vitro growth.…”

“…Plant-pathogen interactions were entirely dissociated from the environment, which is usually used in the sRNAs profiling of stressed plants [57,58]. Ma et al [58] also found that the fungal sRNA enrichment was lower in planta than during in vitro growth. In this study, we used the cultivar Chardonnay since it is a popular grapevine cultivar all around the world [59], and in previous research, it showed a high level of tolerance against natural infections of GTD pathogens in Italy [60,61].…”

Protective Role of Leaf Variegation in Pittosporum tobira under Low Temperature: Insights into the Physio-Biochemical and Molecular Mechanisms

“…Peroxidase genes have been extensively studied in plants for their ROS-scavenging activity under various biotic and abiotic stresses, including chilling [73,74,75]. Similarly, Liu et al [76] recently investigated the prominent biological pathways engaged in wild banana tolerance to chilling. They observed significant changes in the sesquiterpenoid and triterpenoid biosynthesis, particularly cytochrome P450 genes, a finding that supports well the results of our study.…”

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of Sanming wild banana (Musa itinerans) and phylogenetic relationships

“…China is rich of wild banana species (Li et al 2017), many of which showed high resistance to both abiotic and biotic stresses, such as cold and banana wilt disease (Li et al 2015). In our previous study, we identified that Sanming wild banana showed the highest cold resistance (Liu, Cheng, Chen, et al 2018;), suggesting that it has great potential to be used in banana cold resistance breeding. Based on its phenotype characteristics, it was categorized into Musa itinerans, which is native to Southeast Asia and subtropical China (H€ akkinen et al 2008).…”

“… 2018 ; Liu, Cheng, Lin, et al. 2018 ), suggesting that it has great potential to be used in banana cold resistance breeding. Based on its phenotype characteristics, it was categorized into Musa itinerans , which is native to Southeast Asia and subtropical China (Häkkinen et al.…”