Bacteria-responsive microRNAs regulate plant innate immunity by modulating plant hormone networks

Plant Mol Biol. 2011 Jan;75(1-2):93-105. doi: 10.1007/s11103-010-9710-8. Epub 2010 Dec 12.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key regulators of gene expression in development and stress responses in most eukaryotes. We globally profiled plant miRNAs in response to infection of bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst). We sequenced 13 small-RNA libraries constructed from Arabidopsis at 6 and 14 h post infection of non-pathogenic, virulent and avirulent strains of Pst. We identified 15, 27 and 20 miRNA families being differentially expressed upon Pst DC3000 hrcC, Pst DC3000 EV and Pst DC3000 avrRpt2 infections, respectively. In particular, a group of bacteria-regulated miRNAs targets protein-coding genes that are involved in plant hormone biosynthesis and signaling pathways, including those in auxin, abscisic acid, and jasmonic acid pathways. Our results suggest important roles of miRNAs in plant defense signaling by regulating and fine-tuning multiple plant hormone pathways. In addition, we compared the results from sequencing-based profiling of a small set of miRNAs with the results from small RNA Northern blot and that from miRNA quantitative RT-PCR. Our results showed that although the deep-sequencing profiling results are highly reproducible across technical and biological replicates, the results from deep sequencing may not always be consistent with the results from Northern blot or miRNA quantitative RT-PCR. We discussed the procedural differences between these techniques that may cause the inconsistency.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / genetics*
  • Arabidopsis / microbiology
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / genetics*
  • Arabidopsis Proteins / metabolism
  • Blotting, Northern
  • Databases, Nucleic Acid
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Library
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Host-Pathogen Interactions
  • Immunity, Innate / genetics
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Plant Diseases / genetics*
  • Plant Diseases / microbiology
  • Plant Growth Regulators / biosynthesis*
  • Pseudomonas syringae / immunology
  • Pseudomonas syringae / pathogenicity
  • Pseudomonas syringae / physiology
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Signal Transduction
  • Virulence

Substances

  • Arabidopsis Proteins
  • MicroRNAs
  • Plant Growth Regulators

Associated data

  • GEO/GSE19694