Expression Analysis Of miRNAs That Regulate Transcription factors related to Auxin, Gibberellin And ABA Signaling Pathways, Under Water Stress In Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Growth and metabolism of plants are affected by a variety of stimuli، including biotic and abiotic environmental stresses that could leads to responses of the plant through hormone regulation. miRNAs، are a group of Non-coding RNAs that some of them are involved in signaling of plant hormones. In this study، the expression patterns of miR159a،b، miR160، miR167a،b and miR171a have been studied in both drought susceptible and drought tolerant varieties in wheat using qRT-PCR. miR159a،b، miR160، miR167a،b and miR171a could play important roles in MYB، ARF، ARF، and SCL، transcription factors regulation، respectively. High conservation among the studied miRNA families was observed in the mature miRNA producer regions by multiplex alignment of pre-miRNAs. Results of qRT-PCR analysis indicated that expressions of miR160 and miR167a،b in tolerant Variety and miR159a،b in susceptible Variety are increased significantly. However، no significant changes in expression were observed for miR171a in both tolerant and sensitive varieties. Presumably، up-regulation miR159a،b in susceptible variety could be resulted to reduction in the expression of MYB genes involved in drought response. On the other hand، up-regulation of miR160 and miR167a،b in tolerant variety، may lead to regulation of auxin and abscisic acid pathways interaction and probably these miRNAs could contribute in stress tolerance in tolerant variety. In addition، no significant change in miR171a expression demonstrated that expression of SCL could be regulated through other mechanisms in plant.