Abstract
BackgroundCircRNAs are widespread in plants and play important roles in response to abiotic stresses. Low nitrogen (LN) promotes the growth of plant root system, allowing it to explore more nitrogen. However, whether circRNAs involved in the response to LN stress and the regulation of LN-promoted root growth in wheat remains unclear.MethodsTwo wheat varieties (LH9 and XN979) with contrasting root phenotypes to LN stress were used as materials to identify circRNAs under control and LN conditions by using high-throughput sequencing technology.ResultsSix differentially expressed circRNAs (DECs) involved in the common response to LN stress and 23 DECs involved in the regulation of LN-promoted root growth were successfully identified. GO analysis of the DEC-host genes involved in the regulation of LN-promoted root growth showed that GO terms related to biological regulation, responses to stimuli and signalling were significantly enriched. Moreover, seven DECs were predicted to have miRNA binding sites and may serve as miRNA sponges to capture miRNAs from their target genes.ConclusionsLN stress altered the expression profiles of circRNAs in wheat. This is the first report of LN stress responsive circRNAs in plants. Our results provided new clues for investigating the functions of circRNAs in response to LN stress and in the regulation of LN-promoted wheat root growth.
Highlights
CircRNAs are widespread in plants and play important roles in response to abiotic stresses
There was no obvious difference of the root dry weight (RDW) of Xinong 979 (XN979) under Low nitrogen (LN) and CK conditions, while the RDW of Luohan 9 (LH9) under LN condition was significantly higher than that of CK (Fig. 1b)
These results indicated that the root growth of LH9 was more significantly promoted by LN stress than that of XN979
Summary
CircRNAs are widespread in plants and play important roles in response to abiotic stresses. Low nitrogen (LN) promotes the growth of plant root system, allowing it to explore more nitrogen. Whether circRNAs involved in the response to LN stress and the regulation of LN-promoted root growth in wheat remains unclear. With the development and wide application of high-throughput sequencing technology, circRNAs have been identified in Arabidopsis [13,14,15,16], soybean [17], rice [13, 18], tomato [19], barley [20], cotton [21], maize [22], wheat [23] and some other plant species in recent years [24, 25]. Ye et al identified 12,037 and 6012 circRNAs in
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