Transcriptional profiling and genes involved in acquired thermotolerance in Banana: a non-model crop

S M Vidya,R M Bhatt,R H Laxman,K V Ravishankar,H S Vijay Kumar

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-27820-4

S M Vidya, R M Bhatt + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27820-4

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Abstract

Banana is a non- model crop plant, and one of the most important crops in the tropics and sub tropics. Heat stress is the major abiotic stress affecting banana crop production because of its long growth period and is likely to become a threat due to global warming. To understand an acquired thermotolerance phenomenon at the molecular level, the RNA-seq approach was employed by adapting TIR method. A total of 136.38 million high quality reads were assembled. Differentially expressed genes under induction (I) was 3936, I + L was 2268 and lethal stress was 907 compared to control. Gene ontology and DGE analysis showed that genes related to heat shock factors, heat shock proteins, stress associated proteins, ROS scavenging, fatty acid metabolism, protein modification were significantly up regulated during induction, thus preparing the organism or tissue at molecular and cellular level for acquired thermotolerance. KEGG pathway analysis revealed the significant enrichment of pathways involved in protein processing, MAPK signaling and HSPs which indicates that these processes are conserved and involved in thermo tolerance. Thus, this study provides insights into the acquired thermotolerance phenomena in plants especially banana.

Highlights

Banana is a non- model crop plant, and one of the most important crops in the tropics and sub tropics
It is important to study the effect of gradual increase or induction stress on early signaling process and activation of genes leading to the accumulation of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and other metabolites involved in thermotolerance
Untreated or Control, Induction stress (I) where plants had a chance to acclimatize to the heat stress (30 °C to 42 °C for 2 hr 30 min) followed by lethal stress where plants are exposed to high temperature stress conditions (I + L: 55 °C for 2 hr)

Summary

Introduction

Banana is a non- model crop plant, and one of the most important crops in the tropics and sub tropics. Acquired thermotolerance may be induced by either pre-exposure to short, but sub-lethal stress or continuous gradual increase in temperature over a long period It has been shown in many crop species that a great variability can be observed for any given abiotic stress trait under acquired thermotolerance[3]. The TIR method allows us to examine the degree of acquired thermotolerance and the variability in germplasm This concept of induction is based on slow and continuous increase in the temperature conditions i.e acclimating the plants to a certain temperature above the normal growth conditions. In this study, we have employed RNA-seq, in a non-model crop, to understand molecular changes during induction of heat stress and its role in imparting acquired thermotolerance. The genes and pathways identified would broaden our understanding and provide a new insight, into acquired thermotolerance phenomena in plants

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