phloem small rnas, nutrient stress responses, and systemic mobility韧皮部小rna、营养应激反应和系统性流动性.pdfVIP

Buhtz et al. BMC Plant Biology 2010, 10:64 /1471-2229/10/64 R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E Open Access Research article Phloem small RNAs, nutrient stress responses, and systemic mobility †1 †2 2 1 Anja Buhtz , Janin Pieritz , Franziska Springer and Julia Kehr* Abstract Background: Nutrient availabilities and needs have to be tightly coordinated between organs to ensure a balance between uptake and consumption for metabolism, growth, and defense reactions. Since plants often have to grow in environments with sub-optimal nutrient availability, a fine tuning is vital. To achieve this, information has to flow cell- to-cell and over long-distance via xylem and phloem. Recently, specific miRNAs emerged as a new type of regulating molecules during stress and nutrient deficiency responses, and miR399 was suggested to be a phloem-mobile long- distance signal involved in the phosphate starvation response. Results: We used miRNA microarrays containing all known plant miRNAs and a set of unknown small (s) RNAs earlier cloned from Brassica phloem sap [1], to comprehensively analyze the phloem response to nutrient deficiency by removing sulfate, copper or iron, respectively, from the growth medium. We show that phloem sap contains a specific set of sRNAs that is distinct from leaves and roots, and that the phloem also responds specifically to stress. Upon S and Cu deficiencies phloem sap reacts with an increase of the same miRNAs that were earlier characterized in other tissues, while no clear positive response to -Fe was observed. However, -Fe led to a reduction of Cu- and P-responsive miRNAs. We further demonstrate that under nutrient starvation miR399 and miR395 can be translocated through graft unions from wild type scions to rootstocks of the miRNA pr