Dataset Information

Small RNA and mRNA Sequencing Reveal the Roles of microRNAs Involved in Pomegranate Female Sterility.

ABSTRACT: Female sterility is a key factor restricting plant reproduction. Our previous studies have revealed that pomegranate female sterility mainly arose from the abnormality of ovule development. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in ovule development. However, little is known about the roles of miRNAs in female sterility. In this study, a combined high-throughput sequencing approach was used to investigate the miRNAs and their targeted transcripts involved in female development. A total of 103 conserved and 58 novel miRNAs were identified. Comparative profiling indicated that the expression of 43 known miRNAs and 14 novel miRNAs were differentially expressed between functional male flowers (FMFs) and bisexual flowers (BFs), 30 known miRNAs and nine novel miRNAs showed significant differences among different stages of BFs, and 20 known miRNAs and 18 novel miRNAs exhibited remarkable expression differences among different stages of FMFs. Gene ontology (GO) analyses of 144 predicted targets of differentially expressed miRNAs indicated that the "reproduction process" and "floral whorl development" processes were significantly enriched. The miRNA-mRNA interaction analyses revealed six pairs of candidate miRNAs and their targets associated with female sterility. Interestingly, pg-miR166a-3p was accumulated, whereas its predicted targets (Gglean012177.1 and Gglean013966.1) were repressed in functional male flowers (FMFs), and the interaction between pg-miR166a-3p and its targets (Gglean012177.1 and Gglean013966.1) were confirmed by transient assay. A. thaliana transformed with 35S-pre-pg-miR166a-3p verified the role of pg-miR166a-3p in ovule development, which indicated pg-miR166a-3p's potential role in pomegranate female sterility. The results provide new insights into molecular mechanisms underlying the female sterility at the miRNA level.

SUBMITTER: Chen L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7013964 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:Pomegranate has two types of flowers on the same plant: functional male flowers (FMF) and bisexual flowers (BF). BF are female-fertile flowers that can set fruits. FMF are female-sterile flowers that fail to set fruit and that eventually drop. The putative cause of pomegranate FMF female sterility is abnormal ovule development. However, the key stage at which the FMF pomegranate ovules become abnormal and the mechanism of regulation of pomegranate female sterility remain unknown. Here, we studied ovule development in FMF and BF, using scanning electron microscopy to explore the key stage at which ovule development was terminated and then analyzed genes differentially expressed (differentially expressed genes - DEGs) between FMF and BF to investigate the mechanism responsible for pomegranate female sterility. Ovule development in FMF ceased following the formation of the inner integument primordium. The key stage for the termination of FMF ovule development was when the bud vertical diameter was 5.0-13.0 mm. Candidate genes influencing ovule development may be crucial factors in pomegranate female sterility. INNER OUTER (INO/YABBY4) (Gglean016270) and AINTEGUMENTA (ANT) homolog genes (Gglean003340 and Gglean011480), which regulate the development of the integument, showed down-regulation in FMF at the key stage of ovule development cessation (ATNSII). Their upstream regulator genes, such as AGAMOUS-like (AG-like) (Gglean028014, Gglean026618, and Gglean028632) and SPOROCYTELESS (SPL) homolog genes (Gglean005812), also showed differential expression pattern between BF and FMF at this key stage. The differential expression of the ethylene response signal genes, ETR (ethylene-resistant) (Gglean022853) and ERF1/2 (ethylene-responsive factor) (Gglean022880), between FMF and BF indicated that ethylene signaling may also be an important factor in the development of pomegranate female sterility. The increase in BF observed after spraying with ethephon supported this interpretation. Results from qRT-PCR confirmed the findings of the transcriptomic analysis.

Project description:Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is an important plant characteristic for exploiting heterosis to enhance crop traits during breeding. However, the CMS regulatory network remains unclear in plants, even though researchers have attempted to isolate genes associated with CMS. In this study, we performed high-throughput sequencing and degradome analyses to identify microRNAs (miRNAs) and their targets in a soybean CMS line (JLCMS9A) and its maintainer line (JLCMS9B). Additionally, the differentially expressed genes during reproductive development were identified using RNA-seq data. A total of 280 miRNAs matched soybean miRNA sequences in miRBase, including mature miRNAs and pre-miRNAs. Of the 280 miRNAs, 30, 23, and 21 belonged to the miR166, miR156, and miR171 families, respectively. Moreover, 410 novel low-abundant miRNAs were identified in the JLCMS9A and JLCMS9B flower buds. Furthermore, 303 and 462 target genes unique to JLCMS9A and JLCMS9B, respectively, as well as 782 common targets were predicted based on the degradome analysis. Target genes differentially expressed between the CMS line and the maintainer line were revealed by an RNA-seq analysis. Moreover, all target genes were annotated with diverse functions related to biological processes, cellular components, and molecular functions, including transcriptional regulation, the nucleus, meristem maintenance, meristem initiation, cell differentiation, auxin-activated signaling, plant ovule development, and anther development. Finally, a network was built based on the interactions. Analyses of the miRNA, degradome, and transcriptome datasets generated in this study provided a comprehensive overview of the reproductive development of a CMS soybean line. The data presented herein represent useful information for soybean hybrid breeding. Furthermore, the study results indicate that miRNAs might contribute to the soybean CMS regulatory network by modulating the expression of CMS-related genes. These findings lay the foundation for future studies on the molecular mechanisms underlying soybean CMS.

Dataset Information

Small RNA and mRNA Sequencing Reveal the Roles of microRNAs Involved in Pomegranate Female Sterility.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets