摘要
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are new type of non-coding endogenous RNA characterized by presence of covalent bond linking 3′ and 5′ ends recently. Various endogenous circRNAs with potential biological functions have been identified in animals and plants.However, little is known regarding circRNAs in soybean. In this study, we have performed genome-wide profiling of circRNAs that associate with insect resistance in soybean through bulk segregant RNA-seq and bioinformatics analysis. In total, 5,367 circRNAs were identified,of which 3,377 and 3,457 ones were detected from resistant and susceptible bulks respectively. These circRNAs showed diverse expression patterns, and 199 circRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between resistant and susceptible samples under stress of defoliation-damage by cotton bollworm feeding. Functional categorization of circRNA-hostgenes revealed that various biology processes were triggered to be active during chewing injury. Intriguingly, some circRNAs were predicted to involve in insect resistance processes,such as tropane, piperidine and pyridine alkaloid biosynthesis, and monoterpenoid biosynthesis.Furthermore, 1,118 circRNAs were predicted to have enrichened miRNA binding sites in soybean. This research provid not only circRNAs resources, but also useful clues about their biological insights in response to defense biotic stress in plant.
