Biotic stress caused by drought in Ilex paraguariensis: evidence from cell signaling

RUIZ, O; ACEVEDO, M.; SANSBERRO, P; AVICO, E.

Montpellier

Congreso; 12th Congress on the International Plant Molecular Biology; 2018

Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as critical regulatory factors of various biological processes in both plants and animals. However, the number and functional roles of lncRNAs in crops remain mostly unknown. In particular, systematic examination of rice lncRNAs involved in abiotic stress responses has not been reported. In this study, we re-analyzed the expression profile of lncRNAs in publicly available rice transcriptome datasets derived from abiotic stress treatments to unveil the potential roles of rice lncRNAs in abiotic stress responses. Overall, we identified 10,831 rice lncRNAs thatwere significantly altered in shoot and/or root tissues under four different abiotic stresses, including ABA, drought, cold, and high salt. Out of them, 5,516 and 5,315 rice lncRNAs were upregulated or downregulated, respectively, in a highly stress-specific or tissue-specific manner. These stress responsivelncRNAs were classified into 15 groups from their stress-specific expression patterns. Based on Venn diagram analysis, we observed strong crosstalks between different stress signaling pathways, showing transcriptional regulatory networks underlying lncRNA expression changes in response to abiotic stresses. Lastly, qRT-PCR validation confirmed the differential expression patterns of theselncRNAs under various conditions. Our results show the first comprehensive identification of a group of rice lncRNAs that are involved in abiotic stress responses.