scholarly journals Bioinformatics Resources for Plant Abiotic Stress Responses: State of the Art and Opportunities in the Fast Evolving -Omics Era

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
Luca Ambrosino ◽  
Chiara Colantuono ◽  
Gianfranco Diretto ◽  
Alessia Fiore ◽  
Maria Luisa Chiusano

Abiotic stresses are among the principal limiting factors for productivity in agriculture. In the current era of continuous climate changes, the understanding of the molecular aspects involved in abiotic stress response in plants is a priority. The rise of -omics approaches provides key strategies to promote effective research in the field, facilitating the investigations from reference models to an increasing number of species, tolerant and sensitive genotypes. Integrated multilevel approaches, based on molecular investigations at genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics levels, are now feasible, expanding the opportunities to clarify key molecular aspects involved in responses to abiotic stresses. To this aim, bioinformatics has become fundamental for data production, mining and integration, and necessary for extracting valuable information and for comparative efforts, paving the way to the modeling of the involved processes. We provide here an overview of bioinformatics resources for research on plant abiotic stresses, describing collections from -omics efforts in the field, ranging from raw data to complete databases or platforms, highlighting opportunities and still open challenges in abiotic stress research based on -omics technologies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Uday Chand Jha ◽  
Harsh Nayyar ◽  
Rintu Jha ◽  
Muhammad Khurshid ◽  
Meiliang Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The immobile nature of plants means that they can be frequently confronted by various biotic and abiotic stresses during their lifecycle. Among the various abiotic stresses, water stress, temperature extremities, salinity, and heavy metal toxicity are the major abiotic stresses challenging overall plant growth. Plants have evolved complex molecular mechanisms to adapt under the given abiotic stresses. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)—a diverse class of RNAs that contain > 200 nucleotides(nt)—play an essential role in plant adaptation to various abiotic stresses. Results LncRNAs play a significant role as ‘biological regulators’ for various developmental processes and biotic and abiotic stress responses in animals and plants at the transcription, post-transcription, and epigenetic level, targeting various stress-responsive mRNAs, regulatory gene(s) encoding transcription factors, and numerous microRNAs (miRNAs) that regulate the expression of different genes. However, the mechanistic role of lncRNAs at the molecular level, and possible target gene(s) contributing to plant abiotic stress response and adaptation, remain largely unknown. Here, we review various types of lncRNAs found in different plant species, with a focus on understanding the complex molecular mechanisms that contribute to abiotic stress tolerance in plants. We start by discussing the biogenesis, type and function, phylogenetic relationships, and sequence conservation of lncRNAs. Next, we review the role of lncRNAs controlling various abiotic stresses, including drought, heat, cold, heavy metal toxicity, and nutrient deficiency, with relevant examples from various plant species. Lastly, we briefly discuss the various lncRNA databases and the role of bioinformatics for predicting the structural and functional annotation of novel lncRNAs. Conclusions Understanding the intricate molecular mechanisms of stress-responsive lncRNAs is in its infancy. The availability of a comprehensive atlas of lncRNAs across whole genomes in crop plants, coupled with a comprehensive understanding of the complex molecular mechanisms that regulate various abiotic stress responses, will enable us to use lncRNAs as potential biomarkers for tailoring abiotic stress-tolerant plants in the future.


Author(s):  
Geoffrey Onaga ◽  
Kerstin Wydra

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the recent significant perspectives on molecules involved in response and tolerance to drought and salinity, the 2 major abiotic stresses affecting crop production, and highlights major molecular components identified in major cereals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (20) ◽  
pp. 7755
Author(s):  
Leelyn Chong ◽  
Pengcheng Guo ◽  
Yingfang Zhu

As an evolutionarily conserved multi-protein complex, the Mediator complex modulates the association between transcription factors and RNA polymerase II to precisely regulate gene transcription. Although numerous studies have shown the diverse functions of Mediator complex in plant development, flowering, hormone signaling, and biotic stress response, its roles in the Abscisic acid (ABA) signaling pathway and abiotic stress response remain largely unclear. It has been recognized that the phytohormone, ABA, plays a predominant role in regulating plant adaption to various abiotic stresses as ABA can trigger extensive changes in the transcriptome to help the plants respond to environmental stimuli. Over the past decade, the Mediator complex has been revealed to play key roles in not only regulating the ABA signaling transduction but also in the abiotic stress responses. In this review, we will summarize current knowledge of the Mediator complex in regulating the plants’ response to ABA as well as to the abiotic stresses of cold, drought and high salinity. We will particularly emphasize the involvement of multi-functional subunits of MED25, MED18, MED16, and CDK8 in response to ABA and environmental perturbation. Additionally, we will discuss potential research directions available for further deciphering the role of Mediator complex in regulating ABA and other abiotic stress responses.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1886
Author(s):  
Hui Jin Kim ◽  
Subhin Seomun ◽  
Youngdae Yoon ◽  
Geupil Jang

The phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA), a cyclopentane fatty acid, mediates plant responses to abiotic stresses. Abiotic stresses rapidly and dynamically affect JA metabolism and JA responses by upregulating the expression of genes involved in JA biosynthesis and signaling, indicating that JA has a crucial role in plant abiotic stress responses. The crucial role of JA has been demonstrated in many previous studies showing that JA response regulates various plant defense systems, such as removal of reactive oxygen species and accumulation of osmoprotectants. Furthermore, increasing evidence shows that plant tolerance to abiotic stresses is linked to the JA response, suggesting that abiotic stress tolerance can be improved by modulating JA responses. In this review, we briefly describe the JA biosynthetic and signaling pathways and summarize recent studies showing an essential role of JA in plant responses and tolerance to a variety of abiotic stresses, such as drought, cold, salt, and heavy metal stress. Additionally, we discuss JA crosstalk with another key stress hormone, abscisic acid, in plant abiotic stress responses.


Metabolites ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 445
Author(s):  
Morena M. Tinte ◽  
Kekeletso H. Chele ◽  
Justin J. J. van der Hooft ◽  
Fidele Tugizimana

Plants are constantly challenged by changing environmental conditions that include abiotic stresses. These are limiting their development and productivity and are subsequently threatening our food security, especially when considering the pressure of the increasing global population. Thus, there is an urgent need for the next generation of crops with high productivity and resilience to climate change. The dawn of a new era characterized by the emergence of fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies has redefined the ideological boundaries of research and applications in plant sciences. Recent technological advances and machine learning (ML)-based computational tools and omics data analysis approaches are allowing scientists to derive comprehensive metabolic descriptions and models for the target plant species under specific conditions. Such accurate metabolic descriptions are imperatively essential for devising a roadmap for the next generation of crops that are resilient to environmental deterioration. By synthesizing the recent literature and collating data on metabolomics studies on plant responses to abiotic stresses, in the context of the 4IR era, we point out the opportunities and challenges offered by omics science, analytical intelligence, computational tools and big data analytics. Specifically, we highlight technological advancements in (plant) metabolomics workflows and the use of machine learning and computational tools to decipher the dynamics in the chemical space that define plant responses to abiotic stress conditions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (10) ◽  
pp. 892-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lianyu Yuan ◽  
Xuncheng Liu ◽  
Ming Luo ◽  
Songguang Yang ◽  
Keqiang Wu

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 824
Author(s):  
Fredy P. Carrera ◽  
Carlos Noceda ◽  
María G. Maridueña-Zavala ◽  
Juan M. Cevallos-Cevallos

Metabolomics is a technology that generates large amounts of data and contributes to obtaining wide and integral explanations of the biochemical state of a living organism. Plants are continuously affected by abiotic stresses such as water scarcity, high temperatures and high salinity, and metabolomics has the potential for elucidating the response-to-stress mechanisms and develop resistance strategies in affected cultivars. This review describes the characteristics of each of the stages of metabolomic studies in plants and the role of metabolomics in the characterization of the response of various plant species to abiotic stresses.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditya Banerjee ◽  
Aryadeep Roychoudhury

WRKY proteins are emerging players in plant signaling and have been thoroughly reported to play important roles in plants under biotic stress like pathogen attack. However, recent advances in this field do reveal the enormous significance of these proteins in eliciting responses induced by abiotic stresses. WRKY proteins act as major transcription factors, either as positive or negative regulators. Specific WRKY factors which help in the expression of a cluster of stress-responsive genes are being targeted and genetically modified to induce improved abiotic stress tolerance in plants. The knowledge regarding the signaling cascade leading to the activation of the WRKY proteins, their interaction with other proteins of the signaling pathway, and the downstream genes activated by them are altogether vital for justified targeting of theWRKYgenes. WRKY proteins have also been considered to generate tolerance against multiple abiotic stresses with possible roles in mediating a cross talk between abiotic and biotic stress responses. In this review, we have reckoned the diverse signaling pattern and biological functions of WRKY proteins throughout the plant kingdom along with the growing prospects in this field of research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (S2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fauziah Abu Bakar ◽  
Pavitra Paramalingam ◽  
Kamariah Hasan

Carica papaya is a well-liked and economically important fruit with outstanding nutritional and medicinal values. Its susceptibility to abiotic stress which affects the growth and harvest, causes significant yield loss to farmers. In recent years, significant progress has been made to understand the genes that play critical roles in abiotic stress response, especially some transcription factor (TF) encoding genes. Among all TFs, WRKY TF gene family is one of the best-studied TFs involved in various stress responses. To date, only limited information on functionally characterised WRKY TFs is available for C. papaya. The aim of this study was to produce a recombinant construct harbouring WRKY gene in pGEM®-T Easy cloning vector. The presence of a DNA band of the expected size of 465 bp on agarose gel electrophoresis indicated that WRKY gene was successfully amplified from all treated samples. DNA sequencing analysis revealed that the amplified sequence isolated from the treated samples were closely related to Carica papaya species with 97% similarity. Following transformation, 4 out of 5 colonies that were randomly selected showed the WRKY gene had been successfully inserted into pGEM®-T Easy vector and transformed into E. coli. In future, the WRKY gene from pGEMT-WRKY recombinant construct will be cloned into the plant expression vector pCAMBIA 1304 prior to transformation in the plant. The success of demonstrating the WRKY gene towards the response in abiotic stress will enable us to produce stress tolerant transgenic crops under unfavourable conditions via genetic engineering for sustained growth.


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