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Temporal expression analysis of microRNAs and their target GRAS genes induced by osmotic stress in two contrasting wheat genotypes

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Abstract

Background

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important nonprotein-coding genes in plants which participate in almost all biological processes during abiotic and biotic stresses. Understanding how plants respond to various environmental conditions requires the identification of stress-related miRNAs. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in studying miRNA genes and gene expression. Drought is one of the common environmental stresses limiting plant growth and development. Stress-specific miRNAs and their GRAS gene targets were validated to understand the role of miRNAs in response to osmotic stress.

Results

In this study, expression patterns of the ten stress-responsive miRNAs involved in osmotic stress adaptation were examined in order to undertand the regulation behavior of abiotic stress and miRNAs in two contrasting wheat genotype C-306 (drought tolerant) and WL-711 (drought sensitive). Three miRNAs were discovered to be upregulated under stress, whereas seven miRNAs were showed to be down-regulated as a consequence of the study. In contrast to miRNA, it was also discovered that GRAS genes as their targets were up-regulated during osmotic stress. In addition, the expression level of miR159, miR408 along with their targets, TaGRAS178 and TaGRAS84 increased in response to osmotic stress. Nevertheless, miR408 is highly conserved miRNA that regulates plant growth, development and stress response. As a result, variation in the expression levels of studied miRNAs in the presence of target genes provides a plausible explanation for miRNA-based abiotic stress regulation. A regulatory network of miRNA and their targets revealed that fourteen miRNA interact with 55 GRAS targets from various subfamilies that contribute in the plant growth and development.

Conclusions

These findings provide evidence for temporal and variety-specific differential regulation of miRNAs and their targets in wheat in response to osmotic shock, and they may aid in determining the potential.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank ICAR-IIWBR for providing the facility for the conductance of this experiment. This paper is IIWBR contribution number 82/479.

Funding

This study was supported by Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal Agrasain Marg, Karnal, Haryana, 132 001, India

    Shefali Mishra & Pradeep Sharma

  2. Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, India

    Shefali Mishra & Reeti Chaudhary

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Correspondence to Pradeep Sharma.

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Mishra, S., Chaudhary, R. & Sharma, P. Temporal expression analysis of microRNAs and their target GRAS genes induced by osmotic stress in two contrasting wheat genotypes. Mol Biol Rep 50, 5621–5633 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-08486-2

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