The role of microRNA399 and sucrose in physiological responses to phosphate deficiency in Arabidopsis thalina plant

Abstract

microRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding small RNAs that generally function as posttranscriptional negative regulators. The miRNAs play a direct role in plant responses to many types of environmental stresses. For example miR399 had a role in response to Pi deficiency. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miR399 and sucrose in some physiological responses of Arabidopsis thaliana plants to phosphate deficiency. Therefore, miR399-overexpressing transgenic and wild type Arabidopsis plants were used. The plant seeds were cultured on the Suc+Pi+ (S+P+), Suc-Pi+ (S-P+), Suc+Pi- (S+P-) and Suc-Pi- (S-P-) media. Pi+ and Pi- refer to 1.2 mM and 10 µM Pi, respectively and Suc+ or Suc- are media culture with 1% sucrose or without. The results showed that sucrose and miR399 had a dramatic effect on root architecture so that primary root length and its branches on S-P+ medium were significantly reduced in over expressed as compared with wild type plants. The highest anthocyanin and starch accumulation was achieved in S+P- media in both plant types. However, miR399 over expression was resulted in significant rise in anthocyanin accumulation on S-P- medium in transgenic relative to wild type plants. In addition, miR399 was resulted in significant rise in free phosphorous level in all types' media. compared to wild type. These results were probably due to the role of sucrose and miR399 in signalling pathway during phosphate starvation in Arabidopsis plant.

Keywords

• Arabidopsis thalina
• Sucrose
• Phosphate deficiency
• MicroRNA