Sl‐lncRNA15492 interacts with Sl‐miR482a and affects Solanum lycopersicum immunity against Phytophthora infestans

Abstract

Summary Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the resistance of plants to infection by pathogens via interactions with microRNAs (miRNAs). Long non‐coding RNAs are cleaved by miRNAs to produce phased small interfering RNAs (phasiRNAs), which, as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs), function as decoys for mature miRNAs, thus inhibiting their expression, and contain pre‐miRNA sequences to produce mature miRNAs. However, whether lncRNAs and miRNAs mediate other molecular mechanisms during plant resistance to pathogens is unknown. In this study, as a positive regulator, Sl‐lncRNA15492 from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Zaofen No. 2) plants affected tomato resistance to Phytophthora infestans. Gain‐ and loss‐of‐function experiments and RNA ligase‐mediated 5′‐amplification of cDNA ends (RLM‐5′ RACE) also revealed that Sl‐miR482a was negatively involved in tomato resistance by targeting Sl‐NBS‐LRR genes and that silencing of Sl‐NBS‐LRR1 decreased tomato resistance. Sl‐lncRNA15492 inhibited the expression of mature Sl‐miR482a, whose precursor was located within the antisense sequence of Sl‐lncRNA15492. Further degradome analysis and additional RLM‐5′ RACE experiments verified that mature Sl‐miR482a could also cleave Sl‐lncRNA15492. These results provide a mechanism by which lncRNAs might inhibit precursor miRNA expression through antisense strands of lncRNAs, and demonstrate that Sl‐lncRNA15492 and Sl‐miR482a mutually inhibit the maintenance of Sl‐NBS‐LRR1 homeostasis during tomato resistance to P. infestans.

Natural antisense transcripts of MIR398 genes suppress microR398 processing and attenuate plant thermotolerance

“…How these MIRNA genes lose their miRNA biogenesis ability remains unclear. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to inhibit the expression of mature-Sly-miR482a in Solanum lycopersicum 39 . In the present study, we found that miRNA processing of MIR398 family genes is disrupted by their cis -NATs transcribed from coding genes.…”

“…Most documented cis -NATs correspond to protein-coding genes, with only a few cis -NATs of noncoding MIRNA genes having been reported 36 , 38 , 39 . Our previous study first identified a subset of cis -NATs corresponding to MIRNA genes in Brassica rapa 16 , including BrpMIR398b and BrpMIR398c .…”

Comparative analysis of long noncoding RNAs in angiosperms and characterization of long noncoding RNAs in response to heat stress in Chinese cabbage

“…In addition, some lncRNAs interact with microRNAs (miRNAs), serving as miRNA precursors or competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) to serve as decoys for specific miRNAs, thus protecting the target mRNAs from repression [29][30][31][32] . In recent years, several studies have indicated that lncRNAs play important roles in various biological processes in plants, including roles in organ development, nutrient metabolism, male sterility, and plant immunity [33][34][35][36][37] . In particular, lncRNAs are considered essential regulators of the response to biotic and abiotic stresses in plants 30,[38][39][40] .…”

Bacillus subtilis SL18r Induces Tomato Resistance Against Botrytis cinerea, Involving Activation of Long Non-coding RNA, MSTRG18363, to Decoy miR1918

“…The ISR processes involving several regulatory components have been well explored (Van Wees et al, 2008;Banks et al, 2012;Timmermann et al, 2019), but the roles of lncRNAs in the PGPRinduced ISR responses remain elusive so far. It is increasingly evidenced that lncRNAs can act as positive regulators of plant innate immunity: pathogen infection induces the expression of several miRNAs to suppress plant defense responses; meanwhile, a healthy plant is able to activate the lncRNA-mediated defense responses for decoying these negative regulators of defense systems (Jing et al, 2019;Hou et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2020).…”