Analysis of microRNA reveals cleistogamous and chasmogamous floret divergence in dimorphic plant

Abstract

Cleistogenes songorica, a grass species that exhibits two spatially different type of inflorescence, chastogamy (CH), flowers localized at the top, and cleistogamy (CL) flowers embedded in leaf sheath. This study aimed at dissecting reasons underlying these distinct floral development patterns at morphological and microRNA level. Phenotyping for CH and CL was conducted and four small RNA libraries were constructed from the CH and CL flowers for high-throughput sequencing to identify the differentiated miRNAs. As results, spikelet, stigma, anther, lemma and lodicule length of CH flowers were found larger than that of CL, and so was seed setting. Also, 17 flower-related differential expression miRNAs were identified which were associated with floral organ development and morphogenesis, and the flower development. Further results showed that miR159a.1-CL3996.Contig2 pair was related to anther development, miR156a-5p-CL1954.Contig2 was linked to response to high light intensity, miR408-3p/miR408d-Unigene429 was related to pollination and Unigene429 positively regulated flower development. To our knowledge, this is the first study on differential miRNA accumulation between CH and CL flowers and our study serves as a foundation to the future elucidation of regulatory mechanisms of miRNAs in the divergent development of CL and CH flowers in a single plant.

Genome-Wide Analysis of the Role of NAC Family in Flower Development and Abiotic Stress Responses in Cleistogenes songorica

“…C. songorica is a dimorphic cleistogamy plant that produces open (chasmogamous) flowers at the apical meristem and closed (cleistogamous) flowers in the sheath. CL in the sheath has a significant impact on the seed yield of C. songorica [ 36 ]. Thirty-six CsNAC genes had differential expression |log 2 (fold change) ≥ 1| between dimorphic florets, including 23 upregulated and 13 downregulated CsNACs ( Figure 7 c; Table S4 ).…”

“…There are two different types of flower of chasmogamous (CH) and cleistogamous (CL) in different positions of C. songorica . There are many differences in the morphology of pollen between dimorphic florets, such as pollen germination aperture dimensions and exine ornamentation [ 36 ]. CL transgenic cultivars are a strategy to reduce environmental risks caused by transgenic plants.…”

Differential co-expression networks of long non-coding RNAs and mRNAs in Cleistogenes songorica under water stress and during recovery

“…We recently completed C. songorica whole genome sequencing. MiRNAs have also been discovered in this plant [40]. In this study, stand-specific libraries were constructed to distinguish the sense and antisense lncRNAs.…”

“…Targets were predicted by submitting all the known C. songorica miRNA and all lncRNAs to psRNATarget (http://plantgrn.noble.org/psRNATarget), with less than three mismatches and G/U pairs allowed within the lncRNA and miRNA pairing regions [83]. Mature C. songorica miRNAs sequences came from our previous studies [40]. The co-expression network was established using Cytoscape (http://cytoscapeweb.cytoscape.org/), based on the conserved genes, target genes of miRNAs, DE-lncRNAs and target genes of DE-lncRNAs.…”

Global identification and characterization of miRNA family members responsive to potassium deprivation in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

“…miR319 and miR395 regulate plant adaptation to nitrogen deprivation through modulating transcription of the genes involved in nutrient metabolism 27 . Additionally, miR319 has been recorded to be also involved in mediating plant response to Pi starvation stress 28 , endowing improved plant growth and stress tolerance by regulating chitosan metabolism 29 and inhibiting viroid infection into spindle tuber 30 . miR398 is down-regulated upon oxidative stress 31 , playing an important role in modulating the regulatory networks associated with ROS scavenging, water deficit, salt stress, UV stress, abscisic acid stress, and Cu and Pi deprivation 32,33 .…”