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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stuttgart, Arkansas » Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #345628
Title: Integration analysis of small RNA and degradome sequencing reveals microRNAs responsive to Dickeya zeae in resistant rice

Author
item LI, WENQI - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences
item Jia, Yulin
item FEI, YUNYAN - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences
item WANG, FANGQUAN - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences
item FAN, FANGJUN - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences
item WANG, JUN - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences
item ZHU, JINYAN - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences
item ZHONG, WEIGONG - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences
item YANG, JIE - Jiangsu Academy Agricultural Sciences

Submitted to: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/31/2018
Publication Date: 1/8/2019
Citation: Li, W., Jia, Y., Fei, Y., Wang, F., Fan, F., Wang, J., Zhu, J., Zhong, W., Yang, J. 2019. Integration analysis of small RNA and degradome sequencing reveals microRNAs responsive to Dickeya zeae in resistant rice. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 20(1):222. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20010222.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20010222

Interpretive Summary: Rice foot rot disease caused by the bacterial pathogen Dickeya zeae is a newly emerged damaging rice disease. Rice microRNAs are not coded for protein and were thought not to be useful in any plant defense responses. To investigate if rice microRNAs are involved in resisting infections by D. zeae, we identified a total of 643 miRNA from rice root tissues at different time points after rice was infected with D. zeae. Among them, miRNA396f-p3 was found to regulate the growth regulating factor genes (OsGRFs). We then examined the overexpression of the miR396f in transgenic rice variety Nipponbare in Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China. We showed that transgenic rice has an enhanced resistance to D. zeae with fewer transcripts of the OsGRFs. We proposed that miR396f confers resistance to D. zeae by suppressing the transcription of its targets OsGRFs. These findings demonstrate that rice has evolved a new genetic mechanism to prevent the damages caused by bacterial pathogen D. zeae.

Technical Abstract: Rice foot rot disease caused by the bacterial pathogen Dickeya zeae (Erwinia chrysanthemi pv. zeae), is a newly emerged damaging rice disease. Genetic resistance to D. zeae is unclear. In the present study we identified a number of miRNAs involved in resistance against D. zeae by integration analysis of the data from small RNAs and degradome sequencing analyses. The growth regulating factor genes (OsGRFs) were identified as the predicted targets by miRNAs through degradome sequence analysis. Overexpression of the osa-miR396f-p3 precursor in transgenic rice performed at Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China showed enhanced resistance to D. zeae, accompanied with significant reduction of transcripts of target growth regulating factor genes (OsGRFs) suggesting that osa-miR396f-p3 confers resistance to Dickeya zeae by repressing the transcription of its targets OsGRFs. These findings suggest miRNA396-P3 and OsGRFs can be used to develop improved resistance to rice foot rot disease.