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Transcriptome sequencing of wild soybean revealed gene expression dynamics under low nitrogen stress

  • Plant Genetics • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Applied Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Nitrogen is one of the essential elements for plant growth. Wild soybeans (Glycine soja) have strong abilities to survive in harsh and barren environments, and hence become ideal plant model for studying plant adaptability to low nitrogen (LN) conditions. In this study, we analyzed and compared the transcriptomes of wild soybean subjected to LN treatments. We totally identified 1095 (681 up and 414 down) and 5490 (2998 up and 2492 down) differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the aerial parts (leaf and stem, LS) and roots, respectively. Gene ontology classification analysis revealed that the categories related to LN stress (including oxidation reduction, transcriptional regulation, membrane, and protein phosphorylation) were highly enriched among DEGs. In addition, a total of 784 transcription factor (TF) and 84 transporter protein (TP) genes were determined in LS DEGs, of which some TF genes (NAC1, NAC35, ZFP1, CIM1, and WRKY25) and TP genes like NRT2.5 (nitrate transporter) and ABCC12 (ABC transporter) were widely upregulated under LN stress. Nevertheless, a total of 3859 TF and 370 TP genes were identified in root DEGs, of which some TF genes (NAC6, NAC14, MYB29, MYB92, bZIP62, bZIP72, WRKY60, WRKY58) and TP genes like NRT2.4 and HAK5 (potassium transporter) were upregulated under LN stress. These findings suggest that the identified DEGs may play vital roles in plant responses to LN stress, providing important genetic resources for further functional dissection of plant molecular mechanisms to LN stress.

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Abbreviations

CK:

control

LS:

leaf and stem

LN:

low nitrogen

DEG:

differentially expressed gene

TP:

transporter protein

TF:

transcription factor

NRT:

nitrate transporter

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Lianchuan Biological Company (Hangzhou, China) for Illumina sequencing and raw data analysis.

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670272 to X.D.), Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (C2017014 to X.D.), and the Starting Fund of Northeast Agricultural University (to X.D.).

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Author notes

  1. Qi Sun and Haoran Lu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biological Functional Genes, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, China

    Qi Sun, Haoran Lu, Qing Zhang, Di Wang, Jun Chen, Jialei Xiao, Xiaodong Ding & Qiang Li

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  1. Qi Sun
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Contributions

QS drafted the manuscript. QS and HRL analyzed the data. HRL and QZ performed the phenotypic evaluation. DZ, JC, and JLX helped to coordinate the study. XDD and QL participated in the design of the study and revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript. 

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Correspondence to Xiaodong Ding or Qiang Li.

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Sun, Q., Lu, H., Zhang, Q. et al. Transcriptome sequencing of wild soybean revealed gene expression dynamics under low nitrogen stress. J Appl Genetics 62, 389–404 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-021-00628-1

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