Abstract
Malus hupehensis Rehd. var. pingyiensis Jiang (Pingyi Tiancha, PYTC) is an excellent apple rootstock and ornamental tree, but its tolerance to salt stress is weak. Our previous study showed that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) could alleviate damage in M. hupehensis roots under alkaline salt stress. However, the molecular mechanism of H2S mitigation alkaline salt remains to be elucidated. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important regulatory roles in plant response to salt stress. Whether miRNAs are involved in the mitigation of alkaline salt stress mediated by H2S remains unclear. In the present study, through the expression analysis of miRNAs and target gene response to H2S and alkaline salt stress in M. hupehensis roots, 115 known miRNAs (belonging to 37 miRNA families) and 15 predicted novel miRNAs were identified. In addition, we identified and analyzed 175 miRNA target genes. We certified the expression levels of 15 miRNAs and nine corresponding target genes by real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR). Interestingly, H2S pretreatment could specifically induce the downregulation of mhp-miR408a expression, and upregulated mhp-miR477a and mhp-miR827. Moreover, root architecture was improved by regulating the expression of mhp-miR159c and mhp-miR169 and their target genes. These results suggest that the miRNA-mediated regulatory network participates in the process of H2S-mitigated alkaline salt stress in M. hupehensis roots. This study provides a further understanding of miRNA regulation in the H2S mitigation of alkaline salt stress in M. hupehensis roots.
Highlights
Salinity stress is an increasingly critical global agricultural problem
Clean reads from Control, H2S, H2S + AS, and AS roots were mapped to the genome of domesticated apple in the Rfam database using cmsearch software
Our present study revealed that H2S could alleviate alkaline salt stress in M. hupehensis roots
Summary
Salinity stress is an increasingly critical global agricultural problem. Salt affects plant root growth at the microcosmic level, reducing the quality and yield of crops (Munns and Tester, 2008; Zelm et al, 2020). The terrestrial soil affected by salt is mainly divided into three types: saline soil, alkaline soil, and saline alkali soil (Zhang et al, 2018). NaCl, is the main component of salt stress, while NaHCO3 and Na2CO3 play a significant role in soil alkalization by increasing pH (Xu et al, 2019; Li et al, 2020). Under soil salinity and salinization, the primary stresses are osmotic stress and ionic toxicity in plants. These cause secondary damage, such as oxidative stress and nutrition
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