Investigation of the effects of cycloastragenol on arabidopsis thaliana by high-throughput sequencing

Abstract

Cycloastragenol (CAG) is a compound isolated from‘Astragalus membranaceus’ which has been proven to significantly stimulate telomerase activity, cell proliferation and prevent some diseases in human. Similarly, plants endure different stress conditions leading to physiological, biochemical and molecular perturbations and affecting their growth and development. CAG would be for plants a potential molecule preventing and remedying these disorders. In this frame, our study, the first to investigate CAG in plants, aims to determine effects of cycloastragenol on different signaling mechanisms, to have an overview of transcriptional and post- transcriptional responses analysis through high throughput sequencing methodologies, in order to reveal CAG potential help to plants in surmounting different environmental stresses. RNA sequencing and small RNA sequencing strategies were employed in A. thaliana roots calli under CAG treatment to determine the transcriptional profiles, and to assess known and unknown small RNAs and evaluate their possible functions in the affected pathways. The generated data revealed the upregulation of different genes and stress responsive protein families such as cytochrome P450s transporters. Besides, several miRNAs and their targets associated to metabolic and stress tolerance signaling pathways were found to be up-regulated in treated sample, like miR3434-5p and its target genes which interfere positively in plant responses to hyperosmotic stresses.