ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1647354
Genome-wide analysis of lncRNA in wheat (Triticum aestivum) and functional characterization of TalncR9 in response to drought stress
Provisionally accepted
- Henan University of Urban Construction, Pingdingshan, China
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Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play essential roles in a variety of biological processes in plants. Whilemany lncRNAs have been identified, their functional roles in wheat (Triticum aestivum) remain largely unknown. In this study, we identified 2830 lncRNAs in wheat using RNA-sequencing data derived from drought treatment, among which 323 were found to be significantly responsive to drought stress. GO and KEGG analyses indicated that the target genes were significantly enriched in categories related to binding and catalytic activities, response to various stimuli, plant hormone signal transduction, and other stress resistance pathways. Additionally, we identified 56 TalncRNAs that could potentially serve as target mimics for 38 different miRNAs. A ceRNA network was constructed, which included lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA interactions, comprising 9 lncRNAs, 6 miRNAs, and 14 mRNAs.Silencing TalncR9 in wheat reduced drought tolerance, decreased soluble sugar and prolinelevels, and increasing MDA levels. TalncR9 overexpression in Arabidopsis enhanced drought resistance, increasing germination rates and root length under mannitol treatment. TalncR9 up-regulated drought-related genes (LEA30, DREB2, etc.) in transgenic line. These results demonstrate TalncR9's role as a positive drought regulator and provide insights for improving wheat resilience.
Keywords: wheat, lncRNA, drought, functional characterization, Gene Silencing, overexpression
Received: 15 Jun 2025; Accepted: 22 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhu, Zhao, Liu, Liao, Zhang, Gou and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lianzhe Wang, Henan University of Urban Construction, Pingdingshan, China
Taotao Li, Henan University of Urban Construction, Pingdingshan, China
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