Publications of NIPGR Scientists

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://ndkr-library.nipgr.ac.in/handle/123456789/1

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Heat

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Genome-wide identification, in-silico characterisation and expression analysis of multiprotein bridging factor 1 gene family members in rice
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2025) Bishnoi, Alka; Ram, Hasthi; Soni, Praveen
    The multiprotein bridging factor 1 (MBF1) proteins are evolutionarily conserved transcription co-factors. However, little is known about rice MBF1 gene family and its role. A genome-wide search led to the identification of two MBF1 genes in the rice genome. Their proteins contained characteristic MBF1 and helix-turn-helix domains. Phylogenetic analysis showed that they belong to two different groups. Exploration of publicly available rice transcriptome data revealed that OsMBF1b exhibits constitutively high transcript abundance in all tissues and developmental stages of rice with a little alteration in its expression. Contrarily, OsMBF1c exhibited a prominent alteration in its expression in response to environmental perturbations. Both OsMBF1s showed the highest expression in endosperm. Analysis of publicly-available rice transcriptome data also showed that both OsMBF1s have a role in response to different stresses, especially in heat. Transcript analysis using qRT-PCR confirmed heat inducibility of OsMBF1c in contrasting genotypes i.e. IR64 (heat sensitive) and Nagina 22 (heat tolerant). qRT-PCR also confirmed the drought inducibility of both genes in the IR64 genotype which is sensitive to drought stress also as revealed by analysis of different parameters. In-silico interaction study also indicated their role in heat response as a number of proteins required to cope with high temperatures were predicated to be their interacting partners. Several heat-responsive genes were found to co-express with OsMBF1s. In-silico promoter analysis revealed the occurrence of stress-responsive elements in their putative promoters. Interestingly, both OsMBF1s showed diurnal rhythmic expressions having peaks during the daytime when the temperature rises. Altogether, this study indicates an active role of OsMBF1s in thermotolerance in rice. This is the first report regarding the characterization of rice MBF1 members.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Deciphering the role of MIR169d:NF-YA2 module under individual as well as combined drought and heat stress in Arabidopsis
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2024) Gupta, Apoorva; Ghosh, Debasish; Rao, Sombir; Mathur, Saloni
    Plants are often subjected to a combination of abiotic stresses under natural environmental conditions. The response of plants to combined stresses can be very diferent from that to the individual stress. Several regulatory mechanisms work in harmony to maintain plant’s homeostasis during stress conditions. Among them the roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in combined stresses are beginning to be unravelled. In this study, we evaluated the MIR169d: NF-YA2 target module in individual as well as combined drought and heat stress (HS) in Arabidopsis. We found that MIR169d is highly HS inducible, however, contrary to the reported downregulation of MIR169a/c forms in drought stress in literature, MIR169d is upregulated in drought. Moreover, while MIR169d expression is upregulated during combined stress, the response is less than individual stresses. Further, Arabidopsis plants overexpressing MIR169d or target nf-ya2 knockout mutant plants are more tolerant to both individual as well as combined heat and drought stress as indicated by the higher expression of stress responsive genes and less Trypan blue staining, while plants overexpressing NF-YA2 or those in which miR169defg isoform is sponged up (MIM169defg) are more prone to individual as well as combined heat and drought stress. The MIR169d promoter harbours both heat and drought stress-responsive cis-elements. Assessment of GUS expression in MIR169d-promoter:GUS and NF-YA2-promoter:GUS transgenic lines shows increased and reduced reporter expression in all the three stress conditions as compared to control, respectively. This suggests a stress-induced transcriptional regulation of the MIR169d:NF-YA2 pair. Thus, the MIR169d:NF-YA2 module can be potentially exploited to engineer crops for resistance to multiple abiotic stresses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Abiotic stress impact on the interaction between Macrophomina phaseolina and crop plants
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2024) Ranjan, Shubhashish; Mirchandani, Rishabh; Senthil-Kumar, Muthappa
    Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi.) Goid is an emerging pathogen that causes diseases like dry root rot and charcoal rot in more than 100 plant families. Abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and heat exacerbate this fungal effect and predispose crops to pathogen attacks. Importantly, these combined stresses lead to significant crop yield losses under field conditions. In this, we review the interaction between the devastating pathogen M. phaseolina and several abiotic stresses that are more likely to occur in scenarios of climate change. Drought, heat, and salinity are the major stresses that interact with M. phaseolina in the field. We discuss several field studies, unique physiological and molecular responses, and their mechanisms of control in response to combined stress. The net effect of these interactions depends on a multitude of factors; thus, these interactions modify the impact of biotic stresses on plants by altering their susceptibility. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of what is currently known about M. phaseolina and abiotic stress interactions, as well as several other edaphic factors that interact with plants. We briefly discuss the role of drought, salinity, heat stress, and edaphic factors (such as pH, N, P, K, etc.) that influence pathogen infection in plants. Furthermore, we discuss possible management strategies to combat crop loss due to combined stress. Thus, we suggest the future aspect of combined stress breeding, along with the use of multi-omics techniques and genome editing approaches, to develop cultivars that exhibit stability in a combined stress environment.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Cultivar-biased regulation of HSFA7 and HSFB4a govern high-temperature tolerance in tomato
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2022) Rao, Sombir; Das, Jaishri Rubina; Balyan, Sonia; Verma, Radhika; Mathur, Saloni
    Heat shock factors (HSFs) are at the core of heat stress (HS) response in plants. However, the contribution of HSFs governing the inherent thermo-tolerance mechanism in tomato from sub-tropical hot climates is poorly understood. With the above aim, comparative expression profiles of the HSF family in a HS-tolerant (CLN1621L) and -sensitive cultivars (CA4 and Pusa Ruby) of tomato under HS revealed cultivar-biased regulation of an activator (HSFA7) and a repressor (HSFB4a) class HSF. HSFA7 exhibited strong upregulation while HSFB4a showed downregulation in tolerant tomato cultivar upon HS. Functional characterization of HSFA7 and HSFB4a in a tolerant–sensitive cultivar pair by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS)-based silencing and transient overexpression established them as a positive and a negative regulator of HS tolerance, respectively. Promoter:GUS reporter assays and promoter sequence analyses suggest heat-mediated transcriptional control of both the HSF genes in the contrasting cultivars. Moreover, degradome data highlighted HSFB4a is a probable target of microRNA Sly-miR4200. Transient in-planta Sly-MIR4200-effector:HSFB4a-reporter assays showed miRNA-dependent target down-regulation. Chelation of miRNA by short-tandem-target-mimic of Sly-miR4200 increased target abundance, highlighting a link between Sly-miR4200 and HSFB4a. This miRNA has induced several folds upon HS in the tolerant cultivar where HSFB4a levels are reduced, thus exhibiting the inverse miR:target expression. Thus, we speculate that the alleviation of HSFB4a and increased HSFA7 levels govern thermo-tolerance in the tolerant cultivar by regulating downstream heat stress-responsive genes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Inferring the regulatory network of the miRNA-mediated response to individual and combined heat and drought stress in tomato
    (Springer Nature Publishing AG, 2021) Bansal, Chandni; Balyan, Sonia; Mathur, Saloni
    Under natural environmental conditions, plants are prone to be challenged simultaneously by combination of stresses like heat and drought stress together, thus affecting their overall growth, development and reproduction. Moreover, future climatic conditions are predicted to be warmer and drier, thus, warranting deep understanding of the stress-responsive regulatory networks for developing stress-management strategies. The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) that are key regulators of different stress signalling cascades in such dual stress conditions using varieties growing in warmer climatic conditions is completely lacking. In this study, we have investigated the effect of drought, heat and the two stresses together (combined stress) on a heat-tolerant tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) variety by evaluating physiological parameters as well as, some stress-responsive miRNA-target modules. Taqman-based qRT-PCR miRNA expression analysis showed enhanced expression of sly-miR482d-3p, sly-miR172d-3p, sly-miR164b-3p, sly-miR398b in individual drought and heat stress with an additive upregulation effect under combined stresses. On the other hand, the expression of sly-miR397-5p and sly-miR396b-3p was less when these two stresses co-occurred than the individual stresses and an antagonistic response was observed for sly-miR166a expression in combined versus single stresses. Several high confidence miRNA targets (101) were identified in-silico using degradome data and were functionally annotated using Gene Ontology enrichment analysis into various stress regulatory networks. The comparative analysis confirmed the inverse expression regulation of the miRNA:target pairs for sly-miR398b:Solyc07g006180, sly-miR164b-3p:Solyc08g061500, sly-miR172d:Solyc04g049800, sly-miR396b-3p:Solyc01g102810 and sly-miR396b-3p:Solyc05g017930 under all the three stress conditions. Since miRNAs are highly conserved across diverse plant species, these miRNAs can be candidates for engineering climate resilient crop plants.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Characterization of novel regulators for heat stress tolerance in tomato from Indian sub-continent
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2020) Balyan, Sonia; Rao, Sombir; Jha, Sarita; Bansal, Chandni; Das, Jaishri Rubina; Mathur, Saloni
    The footprint of tomato cultivation, a cool region crop that exhibits heat stress (HS) sensitivity, is increasing in the tropics/sub‐tropics. Knowledge of novel regulatory hot‐spots from varieties growing in the Indian sub‐continent climatic zones could be vital for developing HS‐resilient crops. Comparative transcriptome‐wide signatures of a tolerant (CLN1621L) and sensitive (CA4) cultivar‐pair shortlisted from a pool of varieties exhibiting variable thermo‐sensitivity using physiological, survival and yield‐related traits revealed redundant to cultivar‐specific HS‐regulation. The antagonistically‐expressing genes encode enzymes and proteins that have roles in plant defense and abiotic stresses. Functional characterization of three antagonistic genes by overexpression and silencing established Solyc09g014280 (Acylsugar acyltransferase) and Solyc07g056570 (Notabilis), that are up‐regulated in tolerant cultivar, as positive regulators of HS‐tolerance and Solyc03g020030 (Pin‐II proteinase inhibitor), that is down‐regulated in CLN1621L, as negative regulator of thermotolerance. Transcriptional assessment of promoters of these genes by SNPs in stress‐responsive cis‐elements and promoter swapping experiments in opposite cultivar background showed inherent cultivar‐specific orchestration of transcription factors in regulating transcription. Moreover, overexpression of three ethylene response transcription factors (ERF.C1/F4/F5) also improved HS‐tolerance in tomato. This study identifies several novel HS‐tolerance genes and provides proof of their utility in tomato thermotolerance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Genome-wide analysis of heat shock proteins in C4 model, foxtail millet identifies potential candidates for crop improvement under abiotic stress
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Singh, Roshan Kumar; Jaishankar, Jananee; Muthamilarasan, Mehanathan; Shweta, Shweta; Dangi, Anand; Prasad, Manoj
    Heat shock proteins (HSPs) perform significant roles in conferring abiotic stress tolerance to crop plants. In view of this, HSPs and their encoding genes were extensively characterized in several plant species; however, understanding their structure, organization, evolution and expression profiling in a naturally stress tolerant crop is necessary to delineate their precise roles in stress-responsive molecular machinery. In this context, the present study has been performed in C4 panicoid model, foxtail millet, which resulted in identification of 20, 9, 27, 20 and 37 genes belonging to SiHSP100, SiHSP90, SiHSP70, SiHSP60 and SisHSP families, respectively. Comprehensive in silico characterization of these genes followed by their expression profiling in response to dehydration, heat, salinity and cold stresses in foxtail millet cultivars contrastingly differing in stress tolerance revealed significant upregulation of several genes in tolerant cultivar. SisHSP-27 showed substantial higher expression in response to heat stress in tolerant cultivar, and its over-expression in yeast system conferred tolerance to several abiotic stresses. Methylation analysis of SiHSP genes suggested that, in susceptible cultivar, higher levels of methylation might be the reason for reduced expression of these genes during stress. Altogether, the study provides novel clues on the role of HSPs in conferring stress tolerance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Insights into the small RNA-mediated networks in response to abiotic stress in plants
    (Springer, 2015) Balyan, Sonia C.; Mutum, Roseeta D.; Kansal, Shivani; Kumar, Santosh; Mathur, Saloni; Raghuvanshi, Saurabh
    Under natural conditions, plants are constantly exposed to various environmental stresses such as drought, extreme temperature, salt, UV, mechanical, or nutrient starvation. To cope with these adverse conditions, plants have evolved cascade of molecular networks to perceive and transduce the stress signals, resulting into the reprogramming of gene expression. The stress-regulated reprogramming of gene expression at post-transcriptional regulation has been emphasized with the discovery of small regulatory RNAs. Plant small RNAs represent non-coding RNAs in the size range of 20–24 nucleotides and categorized into hairpin RNAs (hpRNAs) and siRNAs. The first category includes miRNAs, lmiRNAs, and nat-miRNAs while the siRNA group includes hc-siRNA, secondary siRNAs and nat-siRNAs. Studies have shown that small RNAs, especially miRNAs, are dynamically regulated by a variety of abiotic stress conditions. Such sRNAs target a variety of downstream targets including regulatory proteins as well as metabolic enzymes and thus play pivotal role in the regulation of plant abiotic stress response. Stress appears to regulate miRNA biogenesis as well as its activity. Several miRNA gene:target pairs respond to multiple stress conditions and are conserved in various plant species indicating that miRNAs may define pivotal regulatory nodes involved in the regulation of the plant stress response. On the other hand, miRNAs also show variety-/cultivar-specific stress response indicating that they themselves are under a very dynamic regulation. The world of small RNAs is gradually unfolding and much remains to be explored, nevertheless, it has been conclusively demonstrated that small RNAs define a new dimension in the molecular regulatory network regulating the plant stress response.