Drought-Induced miRNA Expression Correlated with Heavy Metal, Phenolic Acid, and Protein and Nitrogen Levels in Five Chickpea Genotypes

Behcet Inal; Mohsen Mirzapour; Ebru Derelli Tufekci; Mustafa Rustemoglu; Adem Kaba; Marzough Aziz Albalawi; Adel I Alalawy; Mohamed Sakran; Mohammed Alqurashi; Allah Ditta

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c03003

Drought-Induced miRNA Expression Correlated with Heavy Metal, Phenolic Acid, and Protein and Nitrogen Levels in Five Chickpea Genotypes

ACS Omega. 2023 Sep 18;8(39):35746-35754. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c03003. eCollection 2023 Oct 3.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Siirt University, Siirt 56100, Turkey.
² Food and Agriculture Vocational High School, Department of Field Crops, Cankiri Karatekin University, Cankiri 18100, Turkey.
³ Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Plant Protection, Sirnak University, Sirnak 73000, Turkey.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University College at Alwajh, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 71491, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk 73000, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Biochemistry Section, Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta31527,Egypt.
⁷ Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Taif University, Taif 21974, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Environmental Sciences, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Sheringal, Dir (U), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 18000, Pakistan.
⁹ School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Perth, WA 6009, Australia.

Abstract

Drought is a prime stress, drastically affecting plant growth, development, and yield. Plants have evolved various physiological, molecular, and biochemical mechanisms to cope with drought. Investigating specific biochemical pathways related to drought tolerance mechanisms of plants through biotechnology approaches is one of the quickest and most effective strategies for enhancing crop production. Among them, microRNAs (miRNAs) are the principal post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression in plants during plant growth under biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, five different chickpea genotypes (İnci, Hasan bey, Arda, Seçkin, and Diyar 95) were grown under normal and drought stress. We recorded the expression levels of microRNAs in these genotypes and found differential expression (miRNA396, miR408, miRNA414, miRNA528, and miRNA1533) under contrasting conditions. Results revealed that miRNA414 and miRNA528 considerably increased in all genotypes under drought stress, and expression levels of miRNA418, miRNA1533, and miRNA396 (except for the Seçkin genotype) were found to be higher under the watered conditions. These genotypes were also investigated for heavy metal, phenolic acid, protein, and nitrogen concentrations under normal and drought stress conditions. The Arda genotype showed a significant increase in nitrogen (5.46%) and protein contents (28.3%), while protein contents were decreased in the Hasan bey and Seçkin genotypes subjected to drought stress. In the case of metals, iron was the most abundant element in all genotypes (İnci = 15.4 ppm, Hasan bey = 29.6 ppm, Seçkin = 37.8 ppm, Arda = 26.3 ppm, and Diyar 95 = 40.8 ppm) under normal conditions. Interestingly, these results were related to miRNA expression in the chickpea genotypes and hint at the regulation of multiple pathways under drought conditions. Overall, the present study will help us to understand the miRNA-mediated regulation of various pathways in chickpea genotypes.