Abstract
BackgroundCold stress is one of the most severe abiotic stresses affecting the banana production. Although some miRNAs have been identified, little is known about the role of miRNAs in response to cold stress in banana, and up to date, there is no report about the role of miRNAs in the response to cold stress in the plants of the cultivated or wild bananas.ResultHere, a cold-resistant line wild banana (Musa itinerans) from China was used to profile the cold-responsive miRNAs by RNA-seq during cold stress. Totally, 265 known mature miRNAs and 41 novel miRNAs were obtained. Cluster analysis of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs indicated that some miRNAs were specific for chilling or 0 °C treated responses, and most of them were reported to be cold-responsive; however, some were seldom reported to be cold-responsive in response to cold stress, e.g., miR395, miR408, miR172, suggesting that they maybe play key roles in response to cold stress. The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of DE miRNAs targets indicated that there existed diversified cold-responsive pathways, and miR172 was found likely to play a central coordinating role in response to cold stress, especially in the regulation of CK2 and the circadian rhythm. Finally, qPCR assays indicated the related targets were negatively regulated by the tested DE miRNAs during cold stress in the wild banana.ConclusionsIn this study, the profiling of miRNAs by RNA-seq in response to cold stress in the plants of the wild banana (Musa itinerans) was reported for the first time. The results showed that there existed diversified cold-responsive pathways, which provided insight into the roles of miRNAs during cold stress, and would be helpful for alleviating cold stress and cold-resistant breeding in bananas.
Highlights
Cold stress is one of the most severe abiotic stresses affecting the banana production
The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs targets indicated that there existed diversified cold-responsive pathways, and miR172 was found likely to play a central coordinating role in response to cold stress, especially in the regulation of CK2 and the circadian rhythm
QPCR assays indicated the related targets were negatively regulated by the tested DE miRNAs during cold stress in the wild banana
Summary
Cold stress is one of the most severe abiotic stresses affecting the banana production. Banana plants are thought to be thermophilic crops that distribute in the warm tropical or subtropical regions. They grow well in a temperature range of 15 °C–35 °C, and the cultivated banana plants generally stop growing when the temperature drops below 10~ 17 °C depending on the cultivars/varieties [5,6,7], and for most banana cultivars in China, the critical temperature is thought to be 13 °Cor so [8]. In China, most of banana productions are in the southern subtropical regions that are at the northern margin of. The cultivated banana plants here often suffer chilling or freezing injuries (in chilling, water-freezing temperature even plant-freezing temperature) in winter and even in spring when extreme weather events occur. Banana researchers and growers have been trying to explore banana cold-resistant genes and developing coldresistant banana cultivars or to protect the banana from chilling or freezing by mean of cold-proof measures [9]; to date, effective methods to solve chilling or freezing injury problems of banana have not yet been satisfactory [10]
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