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Integrated transcriptome and miRNA sequencing approaches provide insights into salt tolerance in allotriploid Populus cathayana

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Abstract

Main conclusion

Some salt-stress responsive DEGs, mainly involved in ion transmembrane transport, hormone regulation, antioxidant system, osmotic regulation, and some miRNA jointly regulated the salt response process in allotriploid Populus cathayana.

Abstract

The molecular mechanism of plant polyploid stress resistance has been a hot topic in biological research. In this study, Populus diploids and first division restitution (FDR) and second division restitution (SDR) triploids were selected as research materials. All materials were treated with 70 mM NaCl solutions for 30 days in the same pot environment. We observed the growth state of triploids and diploids and determined the ratio of potassium and sodium ions, peroxidase (POD) activity, proline content, and ABA and jasmonic acid (JA) hormone content in leaves in the same culture environment with the same concentration of NaCl solution treatment. In addition, RNA-seq technology was used to study the differential expression of mRNA and miRNA. The results showed that triploid Populus grew well and the K+ content and the K+/Na+ ratio in the salt treatment were significantly lower than those in the control. The contents of ABA, JA, POD, and proline were increased compared with contents in diploid under salt stress. The salt-stress responsive DEGs were mainly involved in ion transport, cell homeostasis, the MAPK signaling pathway, peroxisome, citric acid cycle, and other salt response and growth pathways. The transcription factors mainly included NAC, MYB, MYB_related and AP2/ERF. Moreover, the differentially expressed miRNAs involved 32 families, including 743 miRNAs related to predicted target genes, among which 22 miRNAs were significantly correlated with salt-stress response genes and related to the regulation of hormones, ion transport, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and other biological processes. Our results provided insights into the physiological and molecular aspects for further research into the response mechanisms of allotriploid Populus cathayana to salt stress. This study provided valuable information for the salt tolerance mechanism of allopolyploids.

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Abbreviations

DEGs:

Differentially expressed genes

FDR:

First division restitution

JA:

Jasmonic acid

POD:

Peroxidase

SDR:

Second division restitution

TF:

Transcription factor

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China of "Molecular basis of the vegetative growth advantage in allotriploid poplar (31530012) and the Program of the Co-Construction with Beijing Municipal Commission of Education of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular Design, College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Tong Qiu, Kang Du, Yanchun Jing, Qingqing Zeng, Zhao Liu, Yun Li, Yongyu Ren, Jun Yang & Xiangyang Kang

  2. National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Tong Qiu, Kang Du, Yanchun Jing, Qingqing Zeng, Zhao Liu, Yun Li, Yongyu Ren, Jun Yang & Xiangyang Kang

  3. Beijing Laboratory of Urban and Rural Ecological Environment, College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Tong Qiu, Kang Du, Yanchun Jing, Qingqing Zeng, Zhao Liu, Yun Li, Yongyu Ren, Jun Yang & Xiangyang Kang

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  1. Tong Qiu
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  2. Kang Du
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Correspondence to Xiangyang Kang.

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Fig. S1

Sequencing of small RNA and distribution of conserved miRNA family. DC, FC and SC are diploid, FDR triploid and SDR triploid in the control group. DS, FS and SS are diploids, FDR triploid and SDR triploid in the salt-treatment group (GIF 40 KB)

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Qiu, T., Du, K., Jing, Y. et al. Integrated transcriptome and miRNA sequencing approaches provide insights into salt tolerance in allotriploid Populus cathayana. Planta 254, 25 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-021-03600-9

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