Predição e anotação de miRNAs e o papel dos fatores de transcrição na resposta de Elaeis guineensis Jacq. aos estresses abióticos de seca e salinidade ; miRNA prediction and annotations and the role of transcription factors in the response of Elaeis guineensis Jacq. to the abiotical stress of drought and salinity

Arquivo retido, a pedido da autora, até agosto de 2024. ; The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is an oilseed crop of great economic importance and can yield up to 10 times more oil than other oilseed crops, such as soybean and canola. In 2021/2022, the world consumed approximately 82 million tons of palm oil and palm kernel oil, and as demand increases, expanding the yield is necessary. In Brazil, there is an extensive area suitable for planting oil palm; however, these areas go through long periods of drought, requiring artificial irrigation to be sustainable. Around 30% of the world's irrigated farmland is damaged by salinity, negatively affecting crop productivity. So, to expand oil palm cultivation to such areas in Brazil, one must better understand the response of this oilseed crop to drought and salinity stresses. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are directly related to the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression and are essential molecules in the plant response to abiotic stress. Our group performed a study to understand how this oilseed crop responds to two abiotic stresses by predicting and characterizing miRNAs in young oil palms exposed to drought and salinity and then performing the characterization of a select group of transcription factors responsive to both stresses. We collected leaf samples from young oil palm trees - subjected or not to salt stress (12 days) and water deprivation (14 days) - and performed RNA-seq and smallRNA-seq. The smallRNA-seq data underwent rigorous curation using mireap version 0.2, Shortstack version 3.4 and psRNA-Target and subsequent analysis of differential expression and functional annotation using appropriate software, while RNA-seq data underwent extensive analysis of structural and functional annotation and differential expression analysis using qPCR. The sequencing data generated allowed the identification of putative miRNA target genes in the oil palm's genome and to further understand the roles of these regulatory genes in response to stress. Seventy-nine and 81 ...