A novel class of heat-responsive small RNAs derived from the chloroplast genome of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa)

BMC Genomics

Research Article

Yi-Zhen Lu¹  Marcel Prins²  Marjo de Ruiter²  Yu-Ke He³  Lu Wang³  Xiang Yu³  Han Wang⁴ 

[1] James D. Watson Institute of Genome Sciences, Zhejiang University, 268 Kaixuan Road, 310012, Hangzhou, China;T-Life Research Center Fudan University, 200433, Shanghai, China;Keygene, N.V., Agro Business Park 90, 6708 PW, Wageningen, The Netherlands;National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Road, 200032, Shanghai, China;National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Road, 200032, Shanghai, China;Keygene, N.V., Agro Business Park 90, 6708 PW, Wageningen, The Netherlands;

关键词: Heat Stress;    Heat Treatment;    Small RNAs;    Chloroplast Genome;    Chinese Cabbage;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2164-12-289

 received in 2011-01-20, accepted in 2011-06-03,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundNon-coding small RNAs play critical roles in various cellular processes in a wide spectrum of eukaryotic organisms. Their responses to abiotic stress have become a popular topic of economic and scientific importance in biological research. Several studies in recent years have reported a small number of non-coding small RNAs that map to chloroplast genomes. However, it remains uncertain whether small RNAs are generated from chloroplast genome and how they respond to environmental stress, such as high temperature. Chinese cabbage is an important vegetable crop, and heat stress usually causes great losses in yields and quality. Under heat stress, the leaves become etiolated due to the disruption and disassembly of chloroplasts. In an attempt to determine the heat-responsive small RNAs in chloroplast genome of Chinese cabbage, we carried out deep sequencing, using heat-treated samples, and analysed the proportion of small RNAs that were matched to chloroplast genome.ResultsDeep sequencing provided evidence that a novel subset of small RNAs were derived from the chloroplast genome of Chinese cabbage. The c hloroplast s mall RNAs (csRNAs) include those derived from mRNA, rRNA, tRNA and intergenic RNA. The rRNA-derived csRNAs were preferentially located at the 3'-ends of the rRNAs, while the tRNA-derived csRNAs were mainly located at 5'-termini of the tRNAs. After heat treatment, the abundance of csRNAs decreased in seedlings, except those of 24 nt in length. The novel heat-responsive csRNAs and their locations in the chloroplast were verified by Northern blotting. The regulation of some csRNAs to the putative target genes were identified by real-time PCR. Our results reveal that high temperature suppresses the production of some csRNAs, which have potential roles in transcriptional or post-transcriptional regulation.ConclusionsIn addition to nucleus, the chloroplast is another important organelle that generates a number of small RNAs. Many members of csRNA families are highly sensitive to heat stress. Some csRNAs respond to heat stress by silencing target genes. We suggest that proper temperature is important for production of chloroplast small RNAs, which are associated with plant resistance to abiotic stress.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Wang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.