Prominent alterations of wild barley leaf transcriptome in response to individual and combined drought acclimation and heat shock conditions

Abstract

Under field conditions, drought and heat stress typically happen simultaneously and their negative impact on the agricultural production is expected to increase worldwide under the climate change scenario. In this study, we performed RNA-sequencing analysis on leaves of wild barley (Hordeum spontaneum) originated from the northern coastal region of Egypt following individual drought acclimation (DA) and heat shock (HS) treatments and their combination (CS, combined stresses) to distinguish the unique and shared differentially expressed genes (DEG). Results indicated that the number of unique genes that were differentially expressed following HS treatment exceeded the number of those expressed following DA. In addition, the number of genes that were uniquely differentially expressed in response to CS treatment exceeded the number of those of shared responses to individual DA and HS treatments. These results indicate a better adaptation of the Mediterranean wild barley to drought conditions when compared with heat stress. It also manifests that the wild barley response to CS tends to be unique rather than common. Annotation of DEG showed that metabolic processes were the most influenced biological function in response to the applied stresses.

High temperatures modify plant responses to abiotic stress conditions

“…Abbreviations used: Light stress (HL), drought (D), heat stress (HS). Transcriptomic data was obtained from Balfagón et al 2019b, Ashoub et al 2018 with enhanced hormonal responses to specific stress combinations should be considered to improve plant performance.…”

“…Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced during different abiotic stresses and their over accumulation in cells coupled with the lack of a powerful antioxidant systems may cause damage to proteins, DNA and lipids (Suzuki and Mittler 2006). Genes involved in oxidation-reduction processes and genes that respond to oxidative stress or hydrogen peroxide, were upregulated in several abiotic stress combinations and plant species (Rizhsky et al 2004, Suzuki et al 2016, Ashoub et al 2018, Balfagón et al 2019b (Fig. 5).…”

Transcriptomic Profiling of Cotton Leaves in Response to Cotton Aphid Attack

“…RNA-Seq presents an effective way for the identification of DEGs and their regulatory mechanisms at the transcriptome level [34]. It could provide new insights into the molecular basis for plant response to all kinds of abiotic and biotic stress [35][36][37].…”

BaRTv1.0: an improved barley reference transcript dataset to determine accurate changes in the barley transcriptome using RNA-seq

“…Barley is an important cereal crop grown across a geographical range that extends from the Arctic Circle to the hot and dry regions of North Africa, the near east and equatorial highlands. Adaptation of barley to very different growing conditions reflects important characteristics of genomic and transcriptomic diversity that leads to the success of the crop at different latitudes (Ashoub et al, 2018;Dawson et al, 2015;Russell et al, 2016). Changes in gene expression during development and in response to daily and seasonal environmental challenges and stresses drive re-programming of the barley transcriptome (Janiak et al, 2018;Ren et al, 2018;Kintlová et al, 2017;Calixto et al, 2016;IBSC, 2012).…”