No abstract

As a result of thousands of years of agriculture, humans had created many crop varieties that became the basis of our daily diet, animal feed and also carry industrial application. Soybean is one of the most important crops worldwide and because of its high economic value the demand for soybean products is constantly growing. In Europe, due to unfavorable climate conditions, soybean cultivation is restricted and we are forced to rely on imported plant material. The development of agriculture requires continuous improvements in quality and yield of crop varieties under changing or adverse conditions, namely stresses. To achieve this goal we need to recognize and understand the molecular dependencies underlying plant stress responses. With the advent of new technologies in studies of plant transcriptomes and proteomes, now we have the tools necessary for fast and precise elucidation of desirable crop traits. Here, we present an overview of high-throughput techniques used to analyze soybean responses to different abiotic (drought, flooding, cold stress, salinity, phosphate deficiency) and biotic (infections by F. oxysporum, cyst nematode, SMV) stress conditions at the level of the transcriptome (mRNAs and miRNAs) and the proteome.

Soya bean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important legume crop with a significant worldwide production (Govindasamy et al., 2017), accounting for 340 million metric tons (mmt) in 2017. Exceptionally high protein (40%) and oil (20%) content make soya bean an outstanding source of nutrition that is used in a number of food products for humans, as well as in animal feeds. In addition, oil extracted from soya bean seeds can be used in the production of biofuels (Zhang, Pan, & Stellwag, 2008). All these benefits can be attributed to the symbiotic interaction of soya bean with Bradyrhizobium japonicum occurring in root nodules, which results in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen (Zhang, Wang, et al., 2014). This cooperation benefits the environment by decreasing the need for the application of fertilizers and improving soil quality for subsequent crops, such as wheat or maize. In 2017, the production of soya bean in the European Union accounted for 2.74 mmt, which represented ~8% of the EU demand for soya bean seed, oil and meal. Simultaneously, the thriving animal production industry required the European Union to import over 33 mmt of soya bean products, mainly from Argentina and Brazil (https://www. idhsu stain ablet rade.com/uploa ded/2019/04/Europ ean-Soy-Monit or.pdf). The high demand for soya bean-derived products and difficult environmental conditions in temperate climates of the Northern and Central Europe, due to cold springs and early summer droughts,

Chilling stress is one of the most important factors limiting soybean yield in the temperate climate. It significantly constraints the spatial distribution and agricultural productivity of plants, thereby affecting their growth and development. In this study, to determine the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) and their target genes in the chilling resistance of four soybean cultivars (Augusta, Fiskeby V, Toyomusume and Glycine soja) with varying stress susceptibility, 72 small RNA libraries and 24 degradome libraries for high‐throughput sequencing were constructed. A total of 321 known miRNAs were identified, and 348 novel miRNAs were predicted in three analysed tissues. Moreover, under stress conditions, the differential expression of 162 known miRNAs, including well‐conserved, legume‐ and soybean‐specific miRNAs and 18 novel miRNAs, was found in the four tested cultivars. Degradome analysis allowed to assign the differentially expressed miRNAs to their potential target genes. They were found to be related to plant abiotic stress response mechanisms such as reactive oxygen species scavenging, flavonoid biosynthesis and regulation of osmotic potential based on GO and KEGG annotations. The findings of this study constitute a valuable insight into the function of miRNAs in the chilling resistance of soybean and may provide crucial knowledge in the development of new cultivars.

Lr46/Yr29/Pm39 ( Lr46 ) is a gene for slow rusting resistance in wheat. The aim of the study was to analyze the miRNA expression in selected common wheat cultivars carrying resistance genes, Lr46 among others (HN Rod, Pavon‘S’, Myna‘S’, Frontana‘S’, and Sparrow’S’) in response to leaf rust infection caused by Puccinia triticina Erikss. In the Pavon ‘S’, Myna ‘S’, Frontana‘S’, and Sparow‘S’ varieties a product with a length of 242 bp has been identified, which is specific to the Xwmc44 marker linked to the brown rust resistance gene Lr46 . In the next step, the differences in the expression of microRNA (miR5085 and miR164) associated with the Lr46 gene, which is responsible for different resistance of selected wheat cultivars to leaf rust, were examined using emulsion PCR (ddPCR). In the experiment, biotic stress was induced in mature plants by infecting them with fungal spores under controlled conditions in a growth chamber. For analysis the plant material was collected before inoculation and 6, 12, 24, and 48 h after inoculation. The experiments also showed that plant infection with Puccinia triticina resulted in an increase in miR164 expression in cultivars carrying the Lr46 gene. The expression of miR164 remained stable in a control cultivar (HN ROD) lacking this gene. This has proved that miR164 can be involved in leaf rust resistance mechanisms.