Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Nitrogen (N) deficiency is one of the major stresses that crops are exposed to. It is plausible to suppose that a stress condition can induce a memory in plants that might prime the following generations. Here, an experimental setup that considered four successive generations of N-sufficient and N-l...

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Autores principales: Massaro, Monica, De Paoli, Emanuele, Tomasi, Nicola, Morgante, Michele, Pinton, Roberto, Zanin, Laura
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6888700/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31717351
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20225587
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author Massaro, Monica
De Paoli, Emanuele
Tomasi, Nicola
Morgante, Michele
Pinton, Roberto
Zanin, Laura
author_facet Massaro, Monica
De Paoli, Emanuele
Tomasi, Nicola
Morgante, Michele
Pinton, Roberto
Zanin, Laura
author_sort Massaro, Monica
collection PubMed
description Nitrogen (N) deficiency is one of the major stresses that crops are exposed to. It is plausible to suppose that a stress condition can induce a memory in plants that might prime the following generations. Here, an experimental setup that considered four successive generations of N-sufficient and N-limited Arabidopsis was used to evaluate the existence of a transgenerational memory. The results demonstrated that the ability to take up high amounts of nitrate is induced more quickly as a result of multigenerational stress exposure. This behavior was paralleled by changes in the expression of nitrate responsive genes. RNAseq analyses revealed the enduring modulation of genes in downstream generations, despite the lack of stress stimulus in these plants. The modulation of signaling and transcription factors, such as NIGTs, NFYA and CIPK23 might indicate that there is a complex network operating to maintain the expression of N-responsive genes, such as NRT2.1, NIA1 and NIR. This behavior indicates a rapid acclimation of plants to changes in N availability. Indeed, when fourth generation plants were exposed to N limitation, they showed a rapid induction of N-deficiency responses. This suggests the possible involvement of a transgenerational memory in Arabidopsis that allows plants to adapt efficiently to the environment and this gives an edge to the next generation that presumably will grow in similar stressful conditions.
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spelling pubmed-68887002019-12-09 Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana Massaro, Monica De Paoli, Emanuele Tomasi, Nicola Morgante, Michele Pinton, Roberto Zanin, Laura Int J Mol Sci Article Nitrogen (N) deficiency is one of the major stresses that crops are exposed to. It is plausible to suppose that a stress condition can induce a memory in plants that might prime the following generations. Here, an experimental setup that considered four successive generations of N-sufficient and N-limited Arabidopsis was used to evaluate the existence of a transgenerational memory. The results demonstrated that the ability to take up high amounts of nitrate is induced more quickly as a result of multigenerational stress exposure. This behavior was paralleled by changes in the expression of nitrate responsive genes. RNAseq analyses revealed the enduring modulation of genes in downstream generations, despite the lack of stress stimulus in these plants. The modulation of signaling and transcription factors, such as NIGTs, NFYA and CIPK23 might indicate that there is a complex network operating to maintain the expression of N-responsive genes, such as NRT2.1, NIA1 and NIR. This behavior indicates a rapid acclimation of plants to changes in N availability. Indeed, when fourth generation plants were exposed to N limitation, they showed a rapid induction of N-deficiency responses. This suggests the possible involvement of a transgenerational memory in Arabidopsis that allows plants to adapt efficiently to the environment and this gives an edge to the next generation that presumably will grow in similar stressful conditions. MDPI 2019-11-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6888700/ /pubmed/31717351 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20225587 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Massaro, Monica
De Paoli, Emanuele
Tomasi, Nicola
Morgante, Michele
Pinton, Roberto
Zanin, Laura
Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana
title Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana
title_full Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana
title_fullStr Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana
title_full_unstemmed Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana
title_short Transgenerational Response to Nitrogen Deprivation in Arabidopsis thaliana
title_sort transgenerational response to nitrogen deprivation in arabidopsis thaliana
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6888700/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31717351
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms20225587
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