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Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress

Maize (Zea mays) is an important multi-functional crop. The growth and yield of maize are severely affected by drought stress. Previous studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) in maize play important roles in response to abiotic stress; however, their roles in response to drought stress in maize...

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Autores principales: Tang, Qi, Lv, Haozhe, Li, Qimeng, Zhang, Xiaoyue, Li, Le, Xu, Jie, Wu, Fengkai, Wang, Qingjun, Feng, Xuanjun, Lu, Yanli
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9104622/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35563360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094968
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author Tang, Qi
Lv, Haozhe
Li, Qimeng
Zhang, Xiaoyue
Li, Le
Xu, Jie
Wu, Fengkai
Wang, Qingjun
Feng, Xuanjun
Lu, Yanli
author_facet Tang, Qi
Lv, Haozhe
Li, Qimeng
Zhang, Xiaoyue
Li, Le
Xu, Jie
Wu, Fengkai
Wang, Qingjun
Feng, Xuanjun
Lu, Yanli
author_sort Tang, Qi
collection PubMed
description Maize (Zea mays) is an important multi-functional crop. The growth and yield of maize are severely affected by drought stress. Previous studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) in maize play important roles in response to abiotic stress; however, their roles in response to drought stress in maize roots is unclear. In our study, we found 375 miRNAs in the roots of 16 inbred lines. Of the 16 lines, zma-MIR168, zma-MIR156, and zma-MIR166 were highly expressed, whereas zma-MIR399, zma-MIR2218, and zma-MIR2275 exhibited low expression levels. The expression patterns of miRNA in parental lines and their derived RILs are different. Over 50% of miRNAs exhibited a lower expression in recombinant inbred lines than in parents. The expression of 50 miRNAs was significantly altered under water stress (WS) in at least three inbred lines, and the expression of miRNAs in drought-tolerant lines changed markedly. To better understand the reasons for miRNA response to drought, the degree of histone modifications for miRNA genes was estimated. The methylation level of H3K4 and H3K9 in miRNA precursor regions changed more noticeably after WS, but no such phenomenon was seen for DNA methylation and m6A modification. After the prediction of miRNA targets using psRNATarget and psRobot, we used correlation analysis and qRT-PCR to further investigate the relationship between miRNAs and target genes. We found that 87 miRNA–target pairs were significantly negatively correlated. In addition, a weighted gene co-expression network analysis using miRNAs, as well as their predicted targets, was conducted to reveal that miR159, miR394, and miR319 may be related to maize root growth. The results demonstrated that miRNAs might play essential roles in the response to drought stress.
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spelling pubmed-91046222022-05-14 Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress Tang, Qi Lv, Haozhe Li, Qimeng Zhang, Xiaoyue Li, Le Xu, Jie Wu, Fengkai Wang, Qingjun Feng, Xuanjun Lu, Yanli Int J Mol Sci Article Maize (Zea mays) is an important multi-functional crop. The growth and yield of maize are severely affected by drought stress. Previous studies have shown that microRNAs (miRNAs) in maize play important roles in response to abiotic stress; however, their roles in response to drought stress in maize roots is unclear. In our study, we found 375 miRNAs in the roots of 16 inbred lines. Of the 16 lines, zma-MIR168, zma-MIR156, and zma-MIR166 were highly expressed, whereas zma-MIR399, zma-MIR2218, and zma-MIR2275 exhibited low expression levels. The expression patterns of miRNA in parental lines and their derived RILs are different. Over 50% of miRNAs exhibited a lower expression in recombinant inbred lines than in parents. The expression of 50 miRNAs was significantly altered under water stress (WS) in at least three inbred lines, and the expression of miRNAs in drought-tolerant lines changed markedly. To better understand the reasons for miRNA response to drought, the degree of histone modifications for miRNA genes was estimated. The methylation level of H3K4 and H3K9 in miRNA precursor regions changed more noticeably after WS, but no such phenomenon was seen for DNA methylation and m6A modification. After the prediction of miRNA targets using psRNATarget and psRobot, we used correlation analysis and qRT-PCR to further investigate the relationship between miRNAs and target genes. We found that 87 miRNA–target pairs were significantly negatively correlated. In addition, a weighted gene co-expression network analysis using miRNAs, as well as their predicted targets, was conducted to reveal that miR159, miR394, and miR319 may be related to maize root growth. The results demonstrated that miRNAs might play essential roles in the response to drought stress. MDPI 2022-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9104622/ /pubmed/35563360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094968 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tang, Qi
Lv, Haozhe
Li, Qimeng
Zhang, Xiaoyue
Li, Le
Xu, Jie
Wu, Fengkai
Wang, Qingjun
Feng, Xuanjun
Lu, Yanli
Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress
title Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress
title_full Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress
title_fullStr Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress
title_full_unstemmed Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress
title_short Characteristics of microRNAs and Target Genes in Maize Root under Drought Stress
title_sort characteristics of micrornas and target genes in maize root under drought stress
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9104622/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35563360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094968
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