Abstract
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN, Heterodera glycines) is an obligate sedentary biotroph that poses major threats to soybean production globally. Recently, multiple miRNAome studies revealed that miRNAs participate in complicated soybean-SCN interactions by regulating their target genes. However, the functional roles of miRNA and target genes regulatory network are still poorly understood. In present study, we firstly investigated the expression patterns of miR159 and targeted GmMYB33 genes. The results showed miR159-3p downregulation during SCN infection; conversely, GmMYB33 genes upregulated. Furthermore, miR159 overexpressing and silencing soybean hairy roots exhibited strong resistance and susceptibility to H. glycines, respectively. In particular, miR159-GAMYB genes are reported to be involve in GA signaling and metabolism. Therefore, we then investigated the effects of GA application on the expression of miR159-GAMYB module and the development of H. glycines. We found that GA directly controls the miR159-GAMYB module, and exogenous GA application enhanced endogenous biologically active GA1 and GA3, the abundance of miR159, lowered the expression of GmMYB33 genes and delayed the development of H. glycines. Moreover, SCN infection also results in endogenous GA content decreased in soybean roots. In summary, the soybean miR159-GmMYB33 module was directly involved in the GA-modulated soybean resistance to H. glycines.
Highlights
IntroductionSoybean cyst nematode (SCN, Heterodera glycines) is a sedentary obligate biotroph and causes more than $1.2 billion and $120 million in annual yield losses in the United States and China, respectively, making it the most harmful pathogen of soybean [4,5]
Hewezi et al found that miR396 downregulation following GRF1/GRF3 induction was necessary for correct syncytia initiation of H. schachtii [19], and a similar functional role of soybean miR396GRF modules was observed in soybean [21]
We investigate the effects of exogenous application of 10 μM GA3 on soybean miR159b overexpressing and silencing hairy roots, and the resistance to SCN recovered and verified that GA controls miR159-GmMYB33 regulatory networks
Summary
Soybean cyst nematode (SCN, Heterodera glycines) is a sedentary obligate biotroph and causes more than $1.2 billion and $120 million in annual yield losses in the United States and China, respectively, making it the most harmful pathogen of soybean [4,5]. Cyst nematode has evolved multifaceted strategies to suppress their hosts’ defence system and maintain their feeding sites to effectively complete their life cycle. Much of this complex parasitism process requires the involvements of small RNAs, especially microRNAs [10,11,12]
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