Evaluation of the Effects of water deficit Stress and Mycorrhizal Symbiosis (Glomus mosseae) on the Expression of Cell Cycle Genes in the Wheat Root (Glomus mosseae ) Using RNA-Seq Analysis

Arab Bafrany, Fahimeh; Iranbakhsh, Alireza; Mehregan, Iraj; Ebadi, Mostafa; Oraghi Ardebili, Zahra

doi:10.22034/cmr.2026.8795.3351

Evaluation of the Effects of water deficit Stress and Mycorrhizal Symbiosis (Glomus mosseae) on the Expression of Cell Cycle Genes in the Wheat Root (Glomus mosseae ) Using RNA-Seq Analysis

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Fahimeh Arab bafrany ¹

Alireza Iranbakhsh ²

Iraj Mehregan ²

Mostafa Ebadi ³

Zahra Oraghi Ardebili ⁴

¹ Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Scince and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehean, Iran

³ Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University.Damghan Branch. Damghan. Iran

⁴ Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University.Garmsar Branch. Garmsar. Iran

10.22034/cmr.2026.8795.3351

Abstract

Water deficit stress is one of the most important limiting factors affecting agricultural crop production in arid and semi-arid regions worlwide. Uderstanding the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to water deficit stress can facilitate the identification of genes and biological pathways involved in stress tolerance.
In the persent study, RNA-Seq based transcriptomic data were used to investigate the molecular responses of wheat plants to water deficit stress and mycorrhizal symbiosis and defferentially expressed genes ( DEGs ) were identified and analyzed. Gene Ontology ( GO ) enrichment analysis revealed that several key biological processes, including the cell cycle, DNA replication and DNA damage repair, were significantly enriched under water deficit stress.
These finding suggest that plants attempt to mitigate the adverse effects of stress by regulating cell division processes and activation mechanisms that maintain genome stability under stress conditions and during symbiosis.
In addition, molecular function categories such as protein binding, catalytic activity and ATP binding were significantly enriched, highlighting the important role of enzymatic regulation and protein signaling in the response to water deficit stress.
Overall, the results demonstrate that the response of wheat to water deficit stress involves the coordinated regulation of pathways associated with the cell cycle, DNA replication, DNA repair and peotein signaling. Indentification of these genes and biological pathways provides deeper insight into the mechanisms underlying drought tolerance in wheat and offers valuable information for plant breeding programs aimed at developing stress-tolerant cultivars.

Keywords

wheat plant

Water deficit stress

mycorrhizal

cell cycle

Gene Expression

Subjects