Transcriptome response of roots to salt stress in a salinity-tolerant bread wheat cultivar

• Published in: PloS one 2019-03, Vol.14 (3), p.e0213305
• Main Authors: Amirbakhtiar, Nazanin, Ismaili, Ahmad, Ghaffari, Mohammad Reza, Nazarian Firouzabadi, Farhad, Shobbar, Zahra-Sadat
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Agricultural biotechnology; Agriculture; Analysis; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Biosynthesis; Bread; Cellular signal transduction; Cellular stress response; Crop production; Cultivars; DNA binding proteins; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Encyclopedias; Environmental aspects; Environmental factors; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - drug effects; Gene mapping; Gene sequencing; Genes; Genetic aspects; Genomes; Genomics; Glutathione; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Homeostasis; Hormones; Kinases; Mapping; Metabolism; Novels; Physical Sciences; Physiology; Plant hormones; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant resistance; Plant Roots - drug effects; Plant Roots - genetics; Plant Roots - growth & development; Plant sciences; Proteins; Research and Analysis Methods; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA sequencing; Salinity; Salinity effects; Salinity tolerance; Salt stress (Botany); Salt Tolerance; Sodium Chloride - pharmacology; Soil research; Stress; Stress response; Transcription (Genetics); Transcription factors; Transcriptome; Transduction; Transferases; Trends; Triticum - drug effects; Triticum - genetics; Triticum - growth & development; Wheat; Whole wheat bread
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213305

Salt stress is one of the major adverse environmental factors limiting crop productivity. Considering Iran as one of the bread wheat origins, we sequenced root transcriptome of an Iranian salt tolerant cultivar, Arg, under salt stress to extend our knowledge of the molecular basis of salinity tolerance in Triticum aestivum. RNA sequencing resulted in more than 113 million reads and about 104013 genes were obtained, among which 26171 novel transcripts were identified. A comparison of abundances showed that 5128 genes were differentially expressed due to salt stress. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were annotated with Gene Ontology terms, and the key pathways were identified using Kyoto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes (KEGG) pathway mapping. The DEGs could be classified into 227 KEGG pathways among which transporters, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, transcription factors, glycosyltransferases, glutathione metabolism and plant hormone signal transduction represented the most significant pathways. Furthermore, the expression pattern of nine genes involved in salt stress response was compared between the salt tolerant (Arg) and susceptible (Moghan3) cultivars. A panel of novel genes and transcripts is found in this research to be differentially expressed under salinity in Arg cultivar and a model is proposed for salt stress response in this salt tolerant cultivar of wheat employing the DEGs. The achieved results can be beneficial for better understanding and improvement of salt tolerance in wheat.