MsaH2A.W is identified response to salt tolerance in Miscanthus sacchariflorus

Abstract

Abstract Miscanthus is a perennial forage plant with great potential for high stress tolerance and biomass yield. It has strong adaptability for growing in saline land and avoids competition with grain crops in arable lands. However, little is known about the underlying genetic basis of Miscanthus adaptation to salt stress. Two diploid species of the genus Miscanthus, Miscanthus sinensis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus, were the focus of this study. The transcriptome variations of these varieties and their hybrid were analysed using RNA‐seq technology under salt treatment. The number of differentially expressed genes in M. sinensis was much higher than that in M. sacchariflorus and their hybrid under salt stress, which indicated that M. sacchariflorus and their hybrid require less transcriptional variation. In addition, most salt‐tolerant genes in the enriched salt‐tolerant pathways were induced in the roots of M. sinensis and constitutively highly expressed in the roots of M. sacchariflorus and their hybrid under salt stress. According to this expression pattern of known salt‐tolerant genes, a histone variant gene MsaH2A.W of M. sacchariflorus was mined and consequently proved for the first time that it could enhance the salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Overall, this study provides valuable genetic resources for studying the underlying genetic basis of salt stress resistance in Miscanthus. Identification of the salt tolerance gene MsaH2A.W can promote the genetic improvement and molecular breeding of salt‐resistant species.

Keywords

• histone variant gene
• Miscanthus sacchariflorus
• MsaH2A.W
• overexpression
• salt tolerance
• transcriptome