Identification of heat responsive genes in pea stipules and anthers through transcriptional profiling

Shaoming Huang; Krishna K Gali; Reddy V B Lachagari; Navajeet Chakravartty; Rosalind A Bueckert; Bunyamin Tar'an; Thomas D Warkentin

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251167

Identification of heat responsive genes in pea stipules and anthers through transcriptional profiling

PLoS One. 2021 Nov 4;16(11):e0251167. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251167. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Shaoming Huang¹, Krishna K Gali¹, Reddy V B Lachagari², Navajeet Chakravartty², Rosalind A Bueckert¹, Bunyamin Tar'an¹, Thomas D Warkentin¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
² AgriGenome Labs Pvt. Ltd., BTIC, MN iHub, Shamirpet, India.

Abstract

Field pea (Pisum sativum L.), a cool-season legume crop, is known for poor heat tolerance. Our previous work identified PR11-2 and PR11-90 as heat tolerant and susceptible lines in a recombinant inbred population. CDC Amarillo, a Canadian elite pea variety, was considered as another heat tolerant variety based on its similar field performance as PR11-2. This study aimed to characterize the differential transcription. Plants of these three varieties were stressed for 3 h at 38°C prior to self-pollination, and RNAs from heat stressed anthers and stipules on the same flowering node were extracted and sequenced via the Illumina NovaSeq platform for the characterization of heat responsive genes. In silico results were further validated by qPCR assay. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified at log2 |fold change (FC)| ≥ 2 between high temperature and control temperature, the three varieties shared 588 DEGs which were up-regulated and 220 genes which were down-regulated in anthers when subjected to heat treatment. In stipules, 879 DEGs (463/416 upregulation/downregulation) were consistent among varieties. The above heat-induced genes of the two plant organs were related to several biological processes i.e., response to heat, protein folding and DNA templated transcription. Ten gene ontology (GO) terms were over-represented in the consistently down-regulated DEGs of the two organs, and these terms were mainly related to cell wall macromolecule metabolism, lipid transport, lipid localization, and lipid metabolic processes. GO enrichment analysis on distinct DEGs of individual pea varieties suggested that heat affected biological processes were dynamic, and variety distinct responses provide insight into molecular mechanisms of heat-tolerance response. Several biological processes, e.g., cellular response to DNA damage stimulus in stipule, electron transport chain in anther that were only observed in heat induced PR11-2 and CDC Amarillo, and their relevance to field pea heat tolerance is worth further validation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Flowers* / genetics
Flowers* / metabolism
Gene Expression Profiling*
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant*
Genes, Plant*
Heat-Shock Response*
Pisum sativum* / genetics
Pisum sativum* / metabolism

Grants and funding

The study was funded by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, and the Western Grains Research Foundation, and paid salaries to KG and SH. AgriGenome Labs Pvt. Ltd., India paid salaries to RVBL and NC. None of these institutions had any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.