Long noncoding RNAs involve in resistance to Verticillium dahliae, a fungal disease in cotton

Abstract

SummaryLong noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have several known functions in plant development, but their possible roles in responding to plant disease remain largely unresolved. In this study, we described a comprehensive disease‐responding lncRNA profiles in defence against a cotton fungal disease Verticillium dahliae. We further revealed the conserved and specific characters of disease‐responding process between two cotton species. Conservatively for two cotton species, we found the expression dominance of induced lncRNAs in the Dt subgenome, indicating a biased induction pattern in the co‐existing subgenomes of allotetraploid cotton. Comparative analysis of lncRNA expression and their proposed functions in resistant Gossypium barbadense cv. ‘7124’ versus susceptible Gossypium hirsutum cv. ‘YZ1’ revealed their distinct disease response mechanisms. Species‐specific (LS) lncRNAs containing more SNPs displayed a fiercer inducing level postinfection than the species‐conserved (core) lncRNAs. Gene Ontology enrichment of LS lncRNAs and core lncRNAs indicates distinct roles in the process of biotic stimulus. Further functional analysis showed that two core lncRNAs, GhlncNAT‐ANX2‐ and GhlncNAT‐RLP7‐silenced seedlings, displayed an enhanced resistance towards V. dahliae and Botrytis cinerea, possibly associated with the increased expression of LOX1 and LOX2. This study represents the first characterization of lncRNAs involved in resistance to fungal disease and provides new clues to elucidate cotton disease response mechanism.

Melatonin enhances cotton immunity to Verticillium wilt via manipulating lignin and gossypol biosynthesis

“…Our transcriptome and metabolic studies show that melatonin pre‐treatment upregulated the expression of phenylpropanoid pathway genes and increased lignin accumulation in cotton seedlings after V. dahliae inoculation (Figures and S3). Consistently, overexpression of GhLac1 and GhLac15 , genes related to phenylpropanoid pathway and lignin biosynthesis, was previously found to enhance V. dahliae resistance in cotton (Hu et al ., ; Zhang et al ., ,b). Transcriptional and histochemical analysis of resistant cotton ( G. barbadense cv.…”

“…The dormant microsclerotia of V. dahliae can survive in soil for many years (Klosterman et al ., ; Gao et al ., ; Zhao et al ., ). The typical symptoms of Verticillium wilt in cotton plants include leaf chlorosis and wilt, leaf defoliation, vascular tissue browning, and plant death (Xu et al ., ; Li et al ., 2016a; Zhang et al ., ,b). Its widespread and destructive effect has led to huge economic losses for the cotton industry in China (Xu et al ., ; Li et al ., ; Gong et al ., ).…”

LncRNA33732‐respiratory burst oxidase module associated with WRKY1 in tomato‐ Phytophthora infestans interactions

“…Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts of more than 200 nucleotides in length and have no apparent coding ability (Hao et al ., ; Wang and Chekanova, ). With the advent of next‐generation sequencing, thousands of lncRNAs have been identified in several plant species such as rice (Zhang et al ., ), Arabidopsis (Liu et al ., ; Di et al ., ), maize (Huanca‐Mamani et al ., ), tomato (Wang et al ., and c), wheat (Ma et al ., ), apple (An et al ., ), cotton (Zhang et al ., ) and others. Plant lncRNAs play important roles in seed development (Kiegle et al ., ), photomorphogenesis (Wang et al ., ), fruit development (Zhu et al ., ; Wang et al ., , ; Li et al ., ), microRNA (miRNA) silencing (Wang et al ., ), miRNA precursors (Chen et al ., ; Joshi et al ., ) and biotic and abiotic stress responses (Qin et al ., ; Wang et al ., ).…”

“…In Populus tomentosa , 3569 cis ‐regulated protein‐coding genes were predicted as potential target genes of lncRNAs to participate in biological regulation (Zhou et al ., ). After infection with TYLCV, Phytoplasma , Verticillium dahliae and F. oxysporum , lncRNAs in tomato, P. tomentosa , cotton and Musa acuminate affect the expression of their neighboring genes in response to these pathogens (Li et al ., ; Fan et al ., ; Zhang et al ., ; Wang et al ., ). Previous studies have shown that lncRNAs transcribed from the promoter region have a strong influence on the transcription of its downstream protein‐coding genes, and some lncRNAs regulate gene expression by forming a triple helix in the promoter of its downstream gene (Quan et al ., ).…”

The Emerging Role of Long Non-Coding RNAs in Plant Defense Against Fungal Stress

“…The time-course RNA-seq analysis discovered 559 lincRNAs in response to Pectobacterium carotovorum subsp., and 17 of these lincRNAs were found to be highly co-expressive associated with 12 potato defense-related genes [48]. Similarly, 514 lncRNAs in resistant Gossypium barbadense were identified as species/lineage-specific (LS) lncRNAs involved in the resistance to Verticillium dahliae, a fungal disease in cotton [44]. Further functional analysis showed that GhlncNAT-ANX2-and GhlncNAT-RLP7-silenced seedlings displayed an enhanced resistance towards V. dahliae and Botrytis cinerea, possibly associated with the increased expression of lipoxygenase 1 (LOX1) and lipoxygenase 2 (LOX2) [44].…”