Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2020, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (4): 421-429.DOI: 10.11983/CBB19244

• EXPERIMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Response of AtR8 lncRNA to Salt Stress and Its Regulation on Seed Germination in Arabidopsis

Nan Zhang1,Ziguang Liu2,Shichen Sun3,Shengyi Liu4,Jianhui Lin1,Yifang Peng5,Xiaoxu Zhang1,He Yang1,Xi Cen1,Juan Wu1,*()   

  1. 1Key Laboratory of Northeast Salinity and Vegetation Restoration and Reconstruction, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
    2Institute of Animal Science, Heilongjiang Academy of Ag-ricultural Sciences, Harbin 150028, China
    3Institute of Farming and Cultivation, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150028, China
    4Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang 157011, China
  • Received:2019-12-18 Accepted:2020-04-15 Online:2020-07-01 Published:2020-05-21
  • Contact: Juan Wu

Abstract: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA that is longer than 200 nucleotides and does not encode proteins. lncRNAs are mainly produced by the transcription of RNA polymerase II and are abundant in the organism and have various biological functions. AtR8 lncRNA is transcribed by RNA polymerase III in Arabidopsis thaliana. Previous studies revealed that Salicylic acid (SA) induces AtR8 lncRNA expression in germinated seeds and that the deletion of AtR8 lncRNA decreases seed germination under SA stress. In this study, we found a conserved salt-stress-responsive element (TCTTCTTCTTTA) in the transcriptional region of AtR8 lncRNA. NaCl treatment inhibited AtR8 lncRNA expression in the germinated seeds. High concentration of NaCl significantly inhibited seed germination of atr8, which had partial deletion of AtR8 lncRNA, compared to that of the wild type, indicating that AtR8 lncRNA plays an important role in regulating seed germination in response to salt stress.

Key words: long non-coding RNA, Arabidopsis thaliana, seed germination, salt stress