Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes Related to Dehydration Resistance in a Highly Drought-Tolerant Pear, Pyrus betulaefolia, as through RNA-Seq.

Kong-Qing Li,Xiao-Yong Xu,Xiao-San Huang,Ji-Hong Liu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149352

Kong-Qing Li, Xiao-Yong Xu + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149352

Copy DOI

Journal: PloS one	Publication Date: Feb 22, 2016
Citations: 38	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Nanjing Agricultural University, Yangzhou University

Abstract

Drought is a major abiotic stress that affects plant growth, development and productivity. Pear is one of the most important deciduous fruit trees in the world, but the mechanisms of drought tolerance in this plant are still unclear. To better understand the molecular basis regarding drought stress response, RNA-seq was performed on samples collected before and after dehydration in Pyrus betulaefolia. In total, 19,532 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. These genes were annotated into 144 Gene Ontology (GO) terms and 18 clusters of orthologous groups (COG) involved in 129 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) defined pathways. These DEGs comprised 49 (26 up-regulated, 23 down-regulated), 248 (166 up-regulated, 82 down-regulated), 3483 (1295 up-regulated, 2188 down-regulated), 1455 (1065 up-regulated, 390 down-regulated) genes from the 1 h, 3 h and 6 h dehydration-treated samples and a 24 h recovery samples, respectively. RNA-seq was validated by analyzing the expresson patterns of randomly selected 16 DEGs by quantitative real-time PCR. Photosynthesis, signal transduction, innate immune response, protein phosphorylation, response to water, response to biotic stimulus, and plant hormone signal transduction were the most significantly enriched GO categories amongst the DEGs. A total of 637 transcription factors were shown to be dehydration responsive. In addition, a number of genes involved in the metabolism and signaling of hormones were significantly affected by the dehydration stress. This dataset provides valuable information regarding the Pyrus betulaefolia transcriptome changes in response to dehydration and may promote identification and functional analysis of potential genes that could be used for improving drought tolerance via genetic engineering of non-model, but economically-important, perennial species.

Highlights

As sessile organisms, plants are frequently threatened by drought, which detrimentally affects growth, development, productivity and geographic distribution [1]
Emerging evidences have shown that plants do not passively accept adverse conditions, but cope with it actively through generic drought signal perception and transduction, which leads to a range of stress related genes alterations that protect them from stress [2]
The decrease of relative water content (RWC) in the leaves was slow over the first hour of dehydration in an ambient environment but accelerated at the 3 and 6 h time points

Summary

Introduction

Plants are frequently threatened by drought, which detrimentally affects growth, development, productivity and geographic distribution [1]. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms that regulate drought tolerance is critical if plant growth and productivity under drought conditions is to be improved. The second group is composed of regulatory proteins, such as transcription factors (TFs), protein phosphatases and protein kinases [2] Among these stress-related transcription factors, members of the AP2/EREPB, bZIP, WRKY and MYB proteins have been well characterized for their roles in the regulation of drought tolerance [6,7,8,9]. These genes constitute a delicate network that plays a key role in combating abiotic stress. It is important to identify transcriptional changes in non-model plants during drought stress so that the molecular elements that are specific to non-model plants can be identified

Methods

Results

Conclusion