Background & Aim:Drought is a natural and recurrent climatic characteristic in most parts of the world and plays an important and restrictive role in crop yield. One of these defense mechanisms is the reprogramming of gene expression using microRNAs. MiRNAs regulate the gene expression more by inhibiting the translation of mRNA and reducing the expression of target protein expression. Experimental: In the present study, the expression pattern of miR398 and its target gene (NtTG5b) in the leaf tissue of purple coneflower under controlled conditions and four levels of drought stress (85, 75, 50 and 25% Field Capacity (FC) were investigated using qRT-PCR method. To ensure the applying the stress on plants, the heat shock protein (HSP) expression was evaluated as a criterion. Results: The results showed increased expression of HSP in leaf tissue, therefore the selected levels for drought stress were confirmed. The expression of miR398 at each stress level was often the same, and the process of expression of the target genes in most cases revealed an inconsistent process that could be due to the difference between the target cell and the cell in which the miRNA was expressed, so this shows the complex regulatory network of miRNAs. Recommended applications/industries: Finally, it can be concluded that miR398 is a drought-responsive miRNA that may play its effects through leaf development control. This could be an important aspect for future studies, because increasing leaf biomass in conditions that have water constraints can be an incentive to use purple coneflower as a plant for medicine.
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