Abstract
BackgroundWater is one of the main limiting factors for plant growth and crop productivity. Plants constantly monitor water availability and can rapidly adjust their metabolism by altering gene expression. This leads to phenotypic plasticity, which aids rapid adaptation to climate changes. Here, we address phenotypic plasticity under drought stress by analyzing differentially expressed genes (DEG) in four phylogenetically related neotropical Bignoniaceae tree species: two from savanna, Handroanthus ochraceus and Tabebuia aurea, and two from seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF), Handroanthus impetiginosus and Handroanthus serratifolius. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an RNA-Seq study comparing tree species from seasonally dry tropical forest and savanna ecosystems.ResultsUsing a completely randomized block design with 4 species × 2 treatments (drought and wet) × 3 blocks (24 plants) and an RNA-seq approach, we detected a higher number of DEGs between treatments for the SDTF species H. serratifolius (3153 up-regulated and 2821 down-regulated under drought) and H. impetiginosus (332 and 207), than for the savanna species. H. ochraceus showed the lowest number of DEGs, with only five up and nine down-regulated genes, while T. aurea exhibited 242 up- and 96 down-regulated genes. The number of shared DEGs among species was not related to habitat of origin or phylogenetic relationship, since both T. aurea and H impetiginosus shared a similar number of DEGs with H. serratifolius. All four species shared a low number of enriched gene ontology (GO) terms and, in general, exhibited different mechanisms of response to water deficit. We also found 175 down-regulated and 255 up-regulated transcription factors from several families, indicating the importance of these master regulators in drought response.ConclusionOur findings show that phylogenetically related species may respond differently at gene expression level to drought stress. Savanna species seem to be less responsive to drought at the transcriptional level, likely due to morphological and anatomical adaptations to seasonal drought. The species with the largest geographic range and widest edaphic-climatic niche, H. serratifolius, was the most responsive, exhibiting the highest number of DEG and up- and down-regulated transcription factors (TF).
Highlights
Water is one of the main limiting factors for plant growth and crop productivity
Among the up-regulated transcription factors (TF), we found 43 different families: seven were shared among all three species; one between T. aurea and H. serratifolius; five between H. impetiginosus and H. serratifolius (NF-YA, BRI1-EMS-Suppressor 1 (BES1), DNA-binding with one zinc finger (DOF), FAR-red-impaired response1 (FAR1) e Nuclear transcription Factor Y subunit Gamma (NF-YC)); one exclusive family in H. impetiginosus (M-type M-type MCM1 (MADS)); and 29 exclusive families in H. serratifolius
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an RNA-Seq study comparing phylogenetically close tree species from seasonally dry tropical forest and savanna ecosystems
Summary
Plants constantly monitor water availability and can rapidly adjust their metabolism by altering gene expression. This leads to phenotypic plasticity, which aids rapid adaptation to climate changes. Sobreiro et al BMC Plant Biol (2021) 21:463 phenotypic plasticity and may induce memory (acclimation) [3, 4] and priming [5] in transcriptional response, enhancing the ability of plants to cope with similar conditions in the future As such, these metabolic changes can aid rapid adaptation to climate changes [6, 7], relaxing selective pressures [8], especially in environments with recurrent stresses [4]. Understanding the plastic responses to water deficit in plants from different ecosystems could elucidate the evolution of important mechanisms and adaptations
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