Dataset Information

Genome-wide transcriptional analysis of two soybean genotypes under dehydration and rehydration conditions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Soybean is an important crop that provides valuable proteins and oils for human use. Because soybean growth and development is extremely sensitive to water deficit, quality and crop yields are severely impacted by drought stress. In the face of limited water resources, drought-responsive genes are therefore of interest. Identification and analysis of dehydration- and rehydration-inducible differentially expressed genes (DEGs) would not only aid elucidation of molecular mechanisms of stress response, but also enable improvement of crop stress tolerance via gene transfer. Using Digital Gene Expression Tag profiling (DGE), a new technique based on Illumina sequencing, we analyzed expression profiles between two soybean genotypes to identify drought-responsive genes.

Results

Two soybean genotypes - drought-tolerant Jindou21 and drought-sensitive Zhongdou33 - were subjected to dehydration and rehydration conditions. For analysis of DEGs under dehydration conditions, 20 cDNA libraries were generated from roots and leaves at two different time points under well-watered and dehydration conditions. We also generated eight libraries for analysis under rehydration conditions. Sequencing of the 28 libraries produced 25,000-33,000 unambiguous tags, which were mapped to reference sequences for annotation of expressed genes. Many genes exhibited significant expression differences among the libraries. DEGs in the drought-tolerant genotype were identified by comparison of DEGs among treatments and genotypes. In Jindou21, 518 and 614 genes were differentially expressed under dehydration in leaves and roots, respectively, with 24 identified both in leaves and roots. The main functional categories enriched in these DEGs were metabolic process, response to stresses, plant hormone signal transduction, protein processing, and plant-pathogen interaction pathway; the associated genes primarily encoded transcription factors, protein kinases, and other regulatory proteins. The seven most significantly expressed (|log2 ratio| ≥ 8) genes - Glyma15g03920, Glyma05g02470, Glyma15g15010, Glyma05g09070, Glyma06g35630, Glyma08g12590, and Glyma11g16000 - are more likely to determine drought stress tolerance. The expression patterns of eight randomly-selected genes were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR; the results of QRT-PCR analysis agreed with transcriptional profile data for 96 out of 128 (75%) data points.

Conclusions

Many soybean genes were differentially expressed between drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive genotypes. Based on GO functional annotation and pathway enrichment analysis, some of these genes encoded transcription factors, protein kinases, and other regulatory proteins. The seven most significant DEGs are candidates for improving soybean drought tolerance. These findings will be helpful for analysis and elucidation of molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance; they also provide a basis for cultivating new varieties of drought-tolerant soybean.

SUBMITTER: Chen LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3827939 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundSoybean is a valuable crop that provides protein and oil. Soybean requires a large amount of nitrogen (N) to accumulate high levels of N in the seed. The yield and protein content of soybean seeds are directly affected by the N-use efficiency (NUE) of the plant, and improvements in NUE will improve yields and quality of soybean products. Genetic engineering is one of the approaches to improve NUE, but at present, it is hampered by the lack of information on genes associated with NUE. Solexa sequencing is a new method for estimating gene expression in the transcription level. Here, the expression profiles were analyzed between two soybean varieties in N-limited conditions to identify genes related to NUE.ResultsTwo soybean genotypes were grown under N-limited conditions; a low-N-tolerant variety (No.116) and a low-N-sensitive variety (No.84-70). The shoots and roots of soybeans were used for sequencing. Eight libraries were generated for analysis: 2 genotypes × 2 tissues (roots and shoots) × 2 time periods [short-term (0.5 to 12 h) and long-term (3 to 12 d) responses] and compared the transcriptomes by high-throughput tag-sequencing analysis. 5,739,999, 5,846,807, 5,731,901, 5,970,775, 5,476,878, 5,900,343, 5,930,716, and 5,862,642 clean tags were obtained for the eight libraries: L1, 116-shoot short-term; L2 84-70-shoot short-term; L3 116-shoot long-term; L4 84-70-shoot long-term; L5 116-root short-term; L6 84-70-root short-term; L7 116-root long-term;L8 84-70-root long-term; these corresponded to 224,154, 162,415, 191,994, 181,792, 204,639, 206,998, 233,839 and 257,077 distinct tags, respectively. The clean tags were mapped to the reference sequences for annotation of expressed genes. Many genes showed substantial differences in expression among the libraries. In total, 3,231 genes involved in twenty-two metabolic and signal transduction pathways were up- or down-regulated. Twenty-four genes were randomly selected and confirmed their expression patterns by quantitative RT-PCR; Twenty-one of the twenty-four genes showed expression patterns consistent with the Digital Gene Expression (DGE) data.ConclusionsA number of soybean genes were differentially expressed between the low-N-tolerant and low-N-sensitive varieties under N-limited conditions. Some of these genes may be candidates for improving NUE. These findings will help to provide a detailed understanding of NUE mechanisms, and also provide a basis for breeding soybean varieties that are tolerant to low-N conditions.

Project description:BackgroundSoybean is a major crop that provides an important source of protein and oil to humans and animals, but its production can be dramatically decreased by the occurrence of drought stress. Soybeans can survive drought stress if there is a robust and deep root system at the early vegetative growth stage. However, little is known about the genome-wide molecular mechanisms contributing to soybean root system architecture. This study was performed to gain knowledge on transcriptome changes and related molecular mechanisms contributing to soybean root development under water limited conditions.ResultsThe soybean Williams 82 genotype was subjected to very mild stress (VMS), mild stress (MS) and severe stress (SS) conditions, as well as recovery from the severe stress after re-watering (SR). In total, 6,609 genes in the roots showed differential expression patterns in response to different water-deficit stress levels. Genes involved in hormone (Auxin/Ethylene), carbohydrate, and cell wall-related metabolism (XTH/lipid/flavonoids/lignin) pathways were differentially regulated in the soybean root system. Several transcription factors (TFs) regulating root growth and responses under varying water-deficit conditions were identified and the expression patterns of six TFs were found to be common across the stress levels. Further analysis on the whole plant level led to the finding of tissue-specific or water-deficit levels specific regulation of transcription factors. Analysis of the over-represented motif of different gene groups revealed several new cis-elements associated with different levels of water deficit. The expression patterns of 18 genes were confirmed byquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method and demonstrated the accuracy and effectiveness of RNA-Seq.ConclusionsThe primary root specific transcriptome in soybean can enable a better understanding of the root response to water deficit conditions. The genes detected in root tissues that were associated with key hormones, carbohydrates, and cell wall-related metabolism could play a vital role in achieving drought tolerance and could be promising candidates for future functional characterization. TFs involved in the soybean root and at the whole plant level could be used for future network analysis between TFs and cis-elements. All of these findings will be helpful in elucidating the molecular mechanisms associated with water stress responses in soybean roots.

Project description:Soil acidity with associated low nutrient availability is one of the major constraints to soybean production in southwestern Ethiopia. Integrated use of lime and acid-tolerant crops is believed to reduce soil acidity and improve crop production. The experiment was conducted in the field condition of Mettu, southwestern Ethiopia during the 2017/18 main cropping season. The experiment comprised fifteen soybean genotypes and two soil amendment (lime and unlimed) treatments arranged in a split-plot design with three replications. For each treatment, four rows were planted per plot; data related to growth, root, nodule, and yield of the crop were collected at a necessary stage for each. Liming and genotype interaction had significantly (P = 0.01) affected all parameters considered except for hundred seed weight and root volume and were affected only by the main effects of genotypes and liming. A significant reduction for most parameters was found on lime-untreated soil than treated soil. Though some genotypes showed higher performance for root, growth parameters, and yield components under unlimed soils; however, gave higher yield and yield components, when grown on lime-untreated with an average yield reduction of 13.7%, due to soil acidity. The maximum grain yield of (1943.93 kg ha-1) was obtained under lime treated acid soil from PI567046A genotype; while the lowest (510.49 kg ha-1) were recorded from SCS-1genotype under the lime untreated acid soil. Genotype BRS268 showed higher yield (1319.83 kg ha-1) under lime untreated acid soil than lime treated acid soil (1143.47 kg ha-1) and showed less reduction percentage for a number of the nodules, root weight, and number of seeds per plant; while PI567046A showed high reduction percentage for yield, biomass, number of pod and seed per plant. A high difference was observed among the soybean genotypes for soil acidity tolerance, which might be further exploited by breeders for the genetic improvement of soybean. Genotype BRS268 had performed better than other tested genotypes under increased soil acidity. selection would be effective to improve soybean genotypes performance on acid soils and identify low Phosphorus tolerant genotype that helps smallholder farmers optimize soybean productivity on acid soils in the study area. HAWASSA-04 variety is the most tolerant among the tested materials. However, further study is required by considering additional genotypes to reach a conclusive recommendation.

Project description:Differences in drought stress tolerance within diverse rice genotypes have been attributed to genetic diversity and epigenetic alterations. DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that influences diverse biological processes, but its effects on rice drought stress tolerance are poorly understood. In this study, methylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing and an Affymetrix GeneChip rice genome array were used to profile the DNA methylation patterns and transcriptomes of the drought-tolerant introgression line DK151 and its drought-sensitive recurrent parent IR64 under drought and control conditions. The introgression of donor genomic DNA induced genome-wide DNA methylation changes in DK151 plants. A total of 1190 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were detected between the two genotypes under normal growth conditions, and the DMR-associated genes in DK151 plants were mainly related to stress response, programmed cell death, and nutrient reservoir activity, which are implicated to constitutive drought stress tolerance. A comparison of the DNA methylation changes in the two genotypes under drought conditions indicated that DK151 plants have a more stable methylome, with only 92 drought-induced DMRs, than IR64 plants with 506 DMRs. Gene ontology analyses of the DMR-associated genes in drought-stressed plants revealed that changes to the DNA methylation status of genotype-specific genes are associated with the epigenetic regulation of drought stress responses. Transcriptome analysis further helped to identify a set of 12 and 23 DMR-associated genes that were differentially expressed in DK151 and IR64, respectively, under drought stress compared with respective controls. Correlation analysis indicated that DNA methylation has various effects on gene expression, implying that it affects gene expression directly or indirectly through diverse regulatory pathways. Our results indicate that drought-induced alterations to DNA methylation may influence an epigenetic mechanism that regulates the expression of unique genes responsible for drought stress tolerance.

Project description:Drought is a significant constraint to yield increase in soybean. The early perception of water deprivation is critical for recruitment of genes that promote plant tolerance. DeepSuperSAGE libraries, including one control and a bulk of six stress times imposed (from 25 to 150 min of root dehydration) for drought-tolerant and sensitive soybean accessions, allowed to identify new molecular targets for drought tolerance. The survey uncovered 120,770 unique transcripts expressed by the contrasting accessions. Of these, 57,610 aligned with known cDNA sequences, allowing the annotation of 32,373 unitags. A total of 1,127 unitags were up-regulated only in the tolerant accession, whereas 1,557 were up-regulated in both as compared to their controls. An expression profile concerning the most representative Gene Ontology (GO) categories for the tolerant accession revealed the expression "protein binding" as the most represented for "Molecular Function", whereas CDPK and CBL were the most up-regulated protein families in this category. Furthermore, particular genes expressed different isoforms according to the accession, showing the potential to operate in the distinction of physiological behaviors. Besides, heat maps comprising GO categories related to abiotic stress response and the unitags regulation observed in the expression contrasts covering tolerant and sensitive accessions, revealed the unitags potential for plant breeding. Candidate genes related to "hormone response" (LOX, ERF1b, XET), "water response" (PUB, BMY), "salt stress response" (WRKY, MYB) and "oxidative stress response" (PER) figured among the most promising molecular targets. Additionally, nine transcripts (HMGR, XET, WRKY20, RAP2-4, EREBP, NAC3, PER, GPX5 and BMY) validated by RT-qPCR (four different time points) confirmed their differential expression and pointed that already after 25 minutes a transcriptional reorganization started in response to the new condition, with important differences between both accessions.