Genome‐wide identification and characterization of long noncoding RNAs in maize under rice black streaked dwarf virus infection

Abstract

AbstractThe functions of long noncoding (lnc) RNA in the response of maize to infection by rice black streaked dwarf virus (RBSDV) is poorly understood, and therefore, a comprehensive disease‐responding lncRNA profile in maize infected with RBSDV was investigated. A total of 38,511 mRNAs and 2717 lncRNAs were identified by performing transcriptomic analysis of maize leaves infected with the virus, including 558 and 8276 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRs) and mRNAs (DEmRs). Functional enrichment analysis of DEmRs showed that multiple immune‐related pathways were significantly enriched (p < 0.05), such as “plant hormone signal transduction”, “phenylpropanoid biosynthesis”, and “plant–pathogen interaction”. There were 248 DElncR‐DEmR pairs, including 169 DElncRs and 236 target DEmRs generated by combining location information and differentially expressed transcripts in this work. In addition, we found that the promoter of lncRNA MSTRG.17772.1 that responds to RBSDV contains abscisic acid (ABA)‐ and methyl jasmonate (MeJA)‐responsive regions, and these two hormones can increase the level of MSTRG.17772.1 and corresponding target mRNA Zm00001d049643_T003, suggesting that ABA and MeJA may respond to RBSDV infection through MSTRG.17772.1–Zm00001d049643_T003 in maize. Our findings revealed the expression of RBSDV‐responsive lncRNAs in maize and provide novel insights into the connection between lncRNAs and ABA and MeJA in the regulation of plant disease resistance.