Investigating effect of miR160 through overexpression in potato cultivars under single or combination of heat and drought stresses

• Published in: Plant biotechnology reports Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 335 - 348
• Main Authors: Şanlı, Beyazıt Abdurrahman, Öztürk Gökçe, Zahide Neslihan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01-06-2021; Springer Nature B.V; 한국식물생명공학회
• Subjects: Agriculture; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Cell Biology; Combined stress; Cultivars; Drought; Gene regulation; Heat; Heat stress; Heat tolerance; Hydrogen peroxide; Life Sciences; miRNA; Original Article; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Sciences; Post-transcription; Potatoes; Proline; Solanum tuberosum; Transgenic plants; Vegetables; 농학; Drought stress; miR160; Transgenic; Potato; miRNA; Heat stress
• DOI: 10.1007/s11816-021-00677-2
• EISSN: 1863-5474
• ISSN: 1863-5466

Potato (
Solanum tuberosum
L.) is one of the major tuber crops which is widely grown in the world. Potato growth and development as well as yield is negatively affected by heat and drought stress alone, but combined stress has devastating effect. MicroRNAs are group of small RNAs which play vital role in gene regulation at transcriptional and post-transcriptional level by repressing or inhibiting protein expression of corresponding target. Current study aimed to understand the function of miR160a-5p and its influence on its target gene ARF16 under applied stresses. Potato cultivars tolerant (Unica) and sensitive (Russet Burbank) were tested under drought, heat, and their combination of stresses. The expression of miR160a-5p was revealed to be higher along with the suppression of corresponding target gene ARF16 gene. Transgenic plants also showed improved physiological, and biochemical traits, with lower accumulation of H
2
O
2
and higher levels of proline solely under drought stress conditions. It was also observed that overexpression of miR160a-5p could alter mechanisms for auxin response factor pathways which enabled transgenic plants to have higher tolerance to abiotic stress conditions. Based on our findings, transgenic Unica and Russet Burbank plants showed increased tolerance to drought and heat stress as compared to wild-type plants. This study can be helpful in understanding the role of miR160a-5p in improved tolerance to abiotic stresses.