Transcriptome-Wide m<sup>6</sup>A Methylome Profiling in Sorghum following GA<sub>3</sub> Treatment under Salt Stress

oleh: Yanqing Wu, Jiao Liu, Guisheng Zhou

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-09-01

Deskripsi

Sorghum (“Jitian 3”) is a salt-tolerant seed cultivar used regularly in marginal lands, such as those with saline soils. Herein, we examined the potential of employing gibberellic acid (GA<sub>3</sub>) as an inducer of sorghum development during salt stress. Thus far, there have been no reports on the signaling network involved in the GA<sub>3</sub>-mediated regulation of sorghum development. In this study, we demonstrated that the stimulating properties of 50 mg/L GA<sub>3</sub> on sorghum development was far superior to other GA<sub>3</sub> concentrations under a 150 mM NaCl salinity condition. Furthermore, using methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq), we established an m<sup>6</sup>A methylation (m<sup>6</sup>A-M) profile in sorghum following exposure to 50 mg/L GA<sub>3</sub>. Overall, 23,363 m<sup>6</sup>A peaks and 16,200 m<sup>6</sup>A genes were screened among the GA<sub>3</sub>-treated and control leaves. These identified peaks were shown to be primarily enriched in the coding, as were the 3′- and 5′-untranslated regions. In addition, we employed m<sup>6</sup>A and transcript expression cross-analysis to identify 70 genes with differential transcript expression and simultaneous m<sup>6</sup>A-M. Intriguingly, the principal gene, <i>LOC8066282</i>, which is associated with <i>LOC8084853</i>, was shown to be intricately linked to the phosphatidylinositol signaling, which in turn regulates sorghum development and response to salt stress. This investigation presents a novel RNA m<sup>6</sup>A-M profile in sorghum, which may facilitate new insights into the underlying signaling behind salt stress resistance. This work will also benefit future investigations on foreign GA<sub>3</sub> administration of sorghum.