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Small RNA profiling reveals involvement of microRNA-mediated gene regulation in response to mycorrhizal symbiosis in Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf.

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Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form mutualistic symbiosis with most land plants, providing mineral nutrients to plants in exchange for photosynthates. Citrus trees have sparse root hairs and thus heavily rely on AMF for nutrient uptake. Although the mechanism underlying AM symbiosis (AMS) is well understood at transcriptional level, little is known about the post-transcriptional regulation of AMS, especially in woody plants. In this study, we performed a comprehensive identification of microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in AMS through Illumina sequencing in a commonly used citrus rootstock, Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf. A total of 148 known miRNAs and 15 novel miRNAs were identified in the roots, among which 20 miRNAs and miRNA*s (microRNA stars) were differentially expressed in response to mycorrhizal colonization, indicating a potential role of these miRNAs and miRNA*s in mycorrhizal symbiosis. Notably, two miRNAs previously reported as responsive to AMS in medicago and tomato (miR171b and miR167h) were also detected to be differentially expressed in mycorrhizal roots of Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf. In addition, our study identified a set of miRNAs (miR399g, miR473, miR1446b/c, and miR477a/c) that could target AMS-related genes, including those encoding SbtM (subtilisin-like serine protease), RAD1 (required for arbuscule development 1), and RFC (replication factor C). Taken together, this study reveals a potential conservation of miRNA-mediated post-transcriptional regulation of AMS between woody plant and herbaceous model plants and also provides some new miRNAs for understanding the regulatory mechanism of AMS in poncirus.

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Acknowledgments

We thank ChiuChai Hao from the University of Cambridge for his warm help on the manuscript revision.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31521092) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFD0202001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology (Ministry of Education), Key Laboratory of Horticultural Crop Biology and Genetic Improvement (Central Region, Ministry of Agriculture), College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Shizishan Road No.1, Hongshan District, Wuhan City, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Fang Song, Chuan He, Fuxi Bai, Zhiyong Pan, Xiuxin Deng & Shunyuan Xiao

  2. Institute of Citrus Science Research of Ganzhou, Ganzhou, 341000, People’s Republic of China

    Xiang Yan

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  1. Fang Song
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  2. Chuan He
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  3. Xiang Yan
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  4. Fuxi Bai
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  5. Zhiyong Pan
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  6. Xiuxin Deng
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  7. Shunyuan Xiao
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Contributions

ZY. P., XX. D., and SY. X. conceived and designed the experiments. F. S., C. H., X. Y., and FX. B. prepared the materials and performed the experiments. F. S. analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhiyong Pan.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Communicated by W.-W. Guo

Data archiving statement

The raw sequencing data were deposited in the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (accession number: SRP113070).

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Song, F., He, C., Yan, X. et al. Small RNA profiling reveals involvement of microRNA-mediated gene regulation in response to mycorrhizal symbiosis in Poncirus trifoliata L. Raf.. Tree Genetics & Genomes 14, 42 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-018-1253-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-018-1253-1

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