Diurnal oscillations of soybean circadian clock and drought responsive genes

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 27;9(1):e86402. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086402. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Rhythms produced by the endogenous circadian clock play a critical role in allowing plants to respond and adapt to the environment. While there is a well-established regulatory link between the circadian clock and responses to abiotic stress in model plants, little is known of the circadian system in crop species like soybean. This study examines how drought impacts diurnal oscillation of both drought responsive and circadian clock genes in soybean. Drought stress induced marked changes in gene expression of several circadian clock-like components, such as LCL1-, GmELF4- and PRR-like genes, which had reduced expression in stressed plants. The same conditions produced a phase advance of expression for the GmTOC1-like, GmLUX-like and GmPRR7-like genes. Similarly, the rhythmic expression pattern of the soybean drought-responsive genes DREB-, bZIP-, GOLS-, RAB18- and Remorin-like changed significantly after plant exposure to drought. In silico analysis of promoter regions of these genes revealed the presence of cis-elements associated both with stress and circadian clock regulation. Furthermore, some soybean genes with upstream ABRE elements were responsive to abscisic acid treatment. Our results indicate that some connection between the drought response and the circadian clock may exist in soybean since (i) drought stress affects gene expression of circadian clock components and (ii) several stress responsive genes display diurnal oscillation in soybeans.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Abscisic Acid
  • Adaptation, Physiological / genetics*
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Arabidopsis / genetics
  • Circadian Clocks / genetics*
  • Circadian Rhythm / physiology*
  • Droughts*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / physiology*
  • Glycine max / genetics*
  • Glycine max / physiology*
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA

Substances

  • Abscisic Acid

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Embrapa LABEX USA program (Embrapa cod. 10200.10/0215-9). Juliana Marcolino-Gomes was supported by a scholarship from the CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) (Process #8075/11-5), an agency of the Ministry of Education of Brazil. Renata Fuganti-Pagliarini (Process #202639/2011-8) and Fabiana A. Rodrigues (Process #202211/2011-8) were supported by scholarships from CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.