MicroRNA160 regulates leaf curvature in potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Désirée)

Abstract

Leaf development is a complex process and factors such as size, shape, curvature, compounding, and texture determine the final leaf morphology. MicroRNA160 is one of the crucial players that has been shown to regulate lamina formation and compounding in tomato. In this study, we show that miR160 also regulates leaf curvature in potato. miR160 targets a group of Auxin Response Factors -StARF10, StARF16, and StARF17that are proposed to function majorly as repressors of auxin signaling. We observed that overexpression of miR160 (miR160-OE) results in decrease in the levels of these ARFs along with hypersensitivity to exogenous auxin treatment, whereas knockdown of miR160 (miR160-KD) causes increased ARF levels and auxin hyposensitivity. The leaves of miR160-OE plants have a high positive curvature, but of miR160-KD plants are flattened compared to wildtype. A prolonged activation of cell cycleas indicated by increased levels of StCYCLIND3;2in the center region of miR160-OE leaves appears to have caused this positive curvature. However, a comparable StTCP4 activity at both center and margin regions of miR160-KD leaves could be the cause for its flattened leaf phenotype. In summary, we show that miR160 plays an important role in regulating leaf curvature in potato plants.

A novel miR160a–GmARF16–GmMYC2 module determines soybean salt tolerance and adaptation

“…The miR160a-GmARF16-GmMYC2 module constitutes a regulatory network that promotes salt tolerance by regulating proline biosynthesis The miR160-ARF module plays critical roles in various aspects of plant growth and developmental regulation (Liu et al, 2007;Turner et al, 2013;Natarajan & Banerjee, 2020;Dai et al, 2021;Hao et al, 2022;Li et al, 2022;Shen et al, 2022), and MYC2 functions as a central regulator in plant growth and responses to abiotic stress (Jeong et al, 2017;Ding et al, 2022;Hu et al, 2023). However, it was previously unknown how the soybean miR160-GmARF16 module regulates adaptation to abiotic stress by modulating GmMYC2 expression.…”

miR160: An Indispensable Regulator in Plant

“…The leaves of plants with overexpressed miR160 had a high positive curvature because of prolonged activation of the cell cycle in the center region of leaves. However, the leaves of miR160-knockdown plants were flattened, the StTCP4 activity in both the central and marginal regions of leaves could be responsible for the flattened leaf phenotype ( Natarajan and Banerjee, 2020 ). But the over-accumulation of ARF18 showed rolled leaves in rice due to the anomaly in epidermal cell division in leaves ( Huang et al, 2016 ).…”

Comparative Study of Small-RNA and Degradome Sequencing Reveals Role of Novel stu-miR8006 in Regulating Root Development in Solanum tuberosum L.

“…At present, the genetic mechanisms related to potato development domestically and abroad mainly focus on the leaves, flowers, tubers, and stress responses. It has been proven that miR160 targets StARF10/16/17 to regulate potato leaf development [11]. StSP3D has been identified as the flowering signal of potato, and silencing StSP3D causes a delay in potato flowering [12].…”