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MiR396 regulatory network and its expression during grain development in wheat

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Abstract

Wheat contains the largest number of miR396 family with 17 miR396 in Poaceae. MiR396 regulatory network underlying wheat grain development has not comprehensively been explored. Our results showed that precursor miR396 family in Poaceae exhibited not only conservativeness but also diversification especially in wheat. Five haplotypes were detected in Poaceae species, while 4 haplotypes in wheat with Hap-4 (miR396a) and Hap-5 (miR396n) unique to wheat. GO enrichment analysis of target genes showed that the first 20 enrichment functions of miR396a and miR396n are completely different from each other, and also completely different from miR396(b–g), miR396(h–m), and miR396(o–q). Functional annotation on the 18 target genes shared by miR396(b–g), miR396(h–m), and miR396(o–q) found that 11 of the 18 target genes are growth-regulating factor (GRF) genes. Our results indicated that, during the grain filling stage of wheat, miR396 is involved in the development of grains by regulating the expression of GRF genes (GRF1, GRF6, and GRF9). Although the enrichment function of miR396(b–g), miR396(h–m), and miR396(o–q) is the same, the gene functional networks they formed differ greatly. Our results indicated that polyploidization enriches not only the diversity of miR396 family and its target genes but also gene functional networks in wheat. These results laid foundation for further elucidating function of miR396 gene family underlying wheat grain development.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0301304) and the International Science and Technology Cooperation Projects of Anhui Province (1704e1002232), a Research Foundation for Talented Scholars from Anhui Agricultural University and the introduced leading talent research team for Universities in Anhui Province.

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  1. Yi Yu and Fangyao Sun contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agronomy, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, Anhui, China

    Yi Yu, Fangyao Sun, Cheng-Yu Wang & De-Xiang Wu

  2. Biology Department, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS, B3H 3C3, Canada

    Ning Chen & Genlou Sun

  3. Key Laboratory of Wheat Biology and Genetic Improvement on South Yellow & Huai River Valley, Ministry of Agriculture, Hefei, 230036, China

    Cheng-Yu Wang

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  1. Yi Yu
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  2. Fangyao Sun
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Contributions

G.S. and D.W. conceived and designed the research. Y.Y., F.S., and N.C. conducted experiments and analyzed data. D.W. and C.Y.W. contributed new reagents or analytical tools. Y.Y., F.S., N. C., and G.S. wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Genlou Sun, Cheng-Yu Wang or De-Xiang Wu.

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Yu, Y., Sun, F., Chen, N. et al. MiR396 regulatory network and its expression during grain development in wheat. Protoplasma 258, 103–113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-020-01556-3

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