Transcriptomic profiling of linolenic acid-responsive genes in ROS signaling from RNA-seq data in Arabidopsis

Linolenic acid (Ln) released from chloroplast membrane galactolipids is a precursor of the phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA). The involvement of this hormone in different plant biological processes, such as responses to biotic stress conditions, has been extensively studied. However, the role of Ln in the regulation of gene expression during abiotic stress situations mediated by cellular redox changes and/or by oxidative stress processes remains poorly understood. An RNA-seq approach has increased our knowledge of the interplay among Ln, oxidative stress and ROS signaling that mediates abiotic stress conditions. Transcriptome analysis with the aid of RNA-seq in the absence of oxidative stress revealed that the incubation of Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspension cultures (ACSC) with Ln resulted in the modulation of 7525 genes, of which 3034 genes had a 2-fold-change, being 533 up- and 2501 down-regulated genes, respectively. Thus, RNA-seq data analysis showed that an important set of these genes were associated with the jasmonic acid biosynthetic pathway including lypoxygenases (LOXs) and Allene oxide cyclases (AOCs). In addition, several transcription factor families involved in the response to biotic stress conditions (pathogen attacks or herbivore feeding), such as WRKY, JAZ, MYC, and LRR were also modified in response to Ln. However, this study also shows that Ln has the capacity to modulate the expression of genes involved in the response to abiotic stress conditions, particularly those mediated by ROS signaling. In this regard, we were able to identify new targets such as galactinol synthase 1 (GOLS1), methionine sulfoxide reductase (MSR) and alkenal reductase in ACSC. It is therefore possible to suggest that, in the absence of any oxidative stress, Ln is capable of modulating new sets of genes involved in the signaling mechanism mediated by additional abiotic stresses (salinity, UV and high light intensity) and especially in stresses mediated by ROS.
CP would like to thank the University of Jaén for funding the Ph.D. fellowship. This study was supported by an ERDF grant co-financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (projects BIO2012-33904 and RECUPERA2020) and the Junta de Andalucía (groups BIO286 and BIO192) in Spain.