Abstract
BackgroundNitrogen [N] is a critical limiting nutrient for plants and has to be exogenously supplied to many crops, to achieve high yield with significant economic and environmental costs, specifically for rice. Development of low-input nitrogen sustainable crop is necessary for sustainable agriculture. Identification of regulatory elements associated with low-N tolerance is imperative for formulating innovative approaches for developing low-N tolerant crop plants, using gene manipulation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to play crucial roles in the modulation of gene expression in plants under various environmental conditions.Methodology/Principal FindingsMiRNAs associated with low-N tolerance have not been identified so far. In this study, we investigated microarray-based miRNA expression in low-N tolerant and low-N sensitive rice genotypes under low N condition. Expressions of 32 miRNAs differed significantly in the two genotypes. Of these 32 miRNAs, expressions of nine miRNAs were further validated experimentally in leaves as well as in roots. Of these differentially expressed miRNAs, six miRNAs (miR156, miR164, miR528, miR820, miR821 and miR1318) were reported in leaves and four (miR164, miR167, miR168 and miR528) in roots. Target genes of all the 32 miRNAs were predicted, which encode transcription factors, and proteins associated with metabolic processes or stress responses. Expression levels of some of the corresponding miRNA targets were analysed and found to be significantly higher in low N-tolerant genotype than low-N sensitive genotype. These findings suggested that miRNAs played an important role in low-N tolerance in rice.Conclusions/SignificanceGenome-wide differences in expression of miRNA in low N-tolerant and low N-sensitive rice genotypes were reported. This provides a platform for selection as well as manipulation of genotypes for better N utilization efficiency.
Highlights
Nitrogen (N) is a major factor, limiting crop productivity in field conditions [1,2]
Since development of low-N tolerant rice varieties is imperative for sustainable agriculture, extensive efforts are needed to discover genetic elements and mechanisms of low-N tolerance. miRNAs are emerging as potential regulators of gene expression and their proven promising role in regulating nutrient related gene network [25,26,27,28,29,30,31] may hold the key to understand genetic variation in biodiversity that can help in selection as well as manipulation to get high performing genotype under low N-fertilizing condition
The expression levels of some of the target genes have been validated by Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR)
Summary
Nitrogen (N) is a major factor, limiting crop productivity in field conditions [1,2]. The global use of N fertilizer increased severalfolds in the last 5 decades in order to augment crop productivity, because most of the high yielding varieties of the major crops developed during this period have high demands of N. There is a considerable challenge ahead in finding effective genetic and other innovations to develop such crop plants, to help minimize the use of N fertilizer without slowing improvements in crop productivity [7]. Identification of regulatory elements associated with lowN tolerance is imperative for formulating innovative approaches for developing low-N tolerant crop plants, using gene manipulation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to play crucial roles in the modulation of gene expression in plants under various environmental conditions
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