Abstract
Understanding how abiotic stress influences plant development is important for crop development and management. The gravity changes force may reveal the additional details of the interconnected nature of plants’ stress-signaling pathways. Sugarcane plants were submitted to gravity-changing forces using the VSB-30 sounding rocket to identify how these plants respond to this abiotic stress using histological, biochemical, and molecular approaches to evaluate this response. The histological analysis allowed us to observe that this alteration culminates in the intense disorganization of vascular bundles and higher lignin accumulation in plant cell walls at the adaxial epidermis and the mesophyll cells. An increase in enzyme activity from superoxide dismutase and guaiacol peroxidase was also observed. Our results indicate that sugarcane’s response is similar to other abiotic stress responses, such as oxidative stress. The RNA sequencing data showed that these plantlets had a different expression on pathways associated with signal perception, plant metabolism involving photosynthesis, amino acid synthesis, cell division, DNA repair, and oxidative enzymes for scavenging ROS. These results presented here using sugarcane plantlets expand our knowledge of how plants can respond to the forces of gravity changes. The expression pattern in roots and leaves showed integrated and distinct responses for some known pathways, and both tissues expressed stress-related transcripts.
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Data Availability
“Upon request,” RNA-seq data are available at BioProject ID PRJNA917241 (NCBI).
Abbreviations
- AU:
-
Activity units
- APX:
-
Ascorbate peroxidase
- AsA:
-
Ascorbic acid
- BLAST:
-
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
- BP:
-
Biological processes
- BUSCO:
-
Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs
- CAT:
-
Catalase
- CC:
-
Cellular components
- DAB:
-
Diaminobenzidine
- GO:
-
Gene ontology
- H2O2 :
-
Hydrogen peroxide
- ISS:
-
International Space Station
- KEGG:
-
Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes
- LCH:
-
Leaves control in horizontal position
- LCV:
-
Leaves control in vertical position
- LMH:
-
Leaves VSB-30 flight-submitted in horizontal position
- LMV:
-
Leaves VSB-30 flight-submitted in vertical position
- MF:
-
Molecular functions
- NO:
-
Nitric oxide
- PCV:
-
Plantlets submitted to control shaker
- POX:
-
Guaiacol peroxidase
- RCH:
-
Roots control in horizontal position
- RCV:
-
Roots control in vertical position
- RIN:
-
RNA integrity number
- RMH:
-
Roots VSB-30 flight-submitted in horizontal position
- RMV:
-
Roots VSB-30 flight-submitted in vertical position
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- SEM:
-
Scanning electron microscopy
- SOD:
-
Superoxide dismutase
- UniProtKB:
-
Entry from the UniProt database
- 1 g :
-
Earth gravity (normal condition)
- 1 g aM:
-
Sugarcane plant grown after microgravity
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Acknowledgements
We wish to express our gratitude to USINA ESTIVAS—BIOSEV for providing the sugarcane plants and to the teams from CLBI, CLA, and AEB for their invaluable support during the Maracati II mission. Additionally, we extend our thanks to Flávio Correia-Junior F. and Gualberto-Junior J., for the helpful suggestions and assistance in the development of the boxes utilized in the Maracati II mission. The authors would also like to acknowledge the technical support provided by the High-Performance Computing Center at UFRN (NPAD/UFRN).
Funding
“This research was funded by Agência Espacial Brasileira (AEB), FINEP, CAPES, Financial code 01; INCT- CNPQ/INESPAÇO. Helaine Cristiane Silva, Diego Gomes Teixeira, Vladmir Vieira do Nascimento; Kellya Francisca Mendonça Barreto were recipients of scholarship from CAPES; Katia C. Scortecci has a CNPq fellowship.”
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HCS and KCS participated in the Maracati II mission, HCS and KFMB made the biochemical and histological assays; LFS, VVN, and DGT worked with RNA-seq data. KCS contributed to conceptualization and design of the work; KCS and JPMSS wrote a first draft of the manuscript; and all authors contributed to and agreed upon the final version.
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Silva, L.F.d., Silva, H.C., Teixeira, D.G. et al. Alterations in Redox Homeostasis and Profound Developmental Consequences Are at the Core of Sudden Gravity Change Responses of Sugarcane Plants. J Plant Growth Regul 43, 920–939 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-023-11149-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-023-11149-y