The transcriptomic response to heat stress of a jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) cultivar is featured with changed expression of long noncoding RNAs

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) of plant species undergoes dynamic regulation and acts in developmental and stress regulation. Presently, there is little information regarding the identification of lncRNAs in jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.), and it is uncertain whether the lncRNAs could respond to heat stress (HS) or not. In our previous study, a cultivar (Hqing1-HR) of Z. jujuba were treated by HS (45°C) for 0, 1, 3, 5 and 7 days, and it was found that HS globally changed the gene expression by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) experiments and informatics analyses. In the current study, 8260 lncRNAs were identified successfully from the previous RNA-seq data, and it indicated that lncRNAs expression was also altered globally, suggesting that the lncRNAs might play vital roles in response to HS. Furthermore, bioinformatics analyses of potential target mRNAs of lncRNAs with cis-acting mechanism were performed, and it showed that multiple differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs co-located with DElncRNAs were highly enriched in pathways associated with response to stress and regulation of metabolic process. Taken together, these findings not only provide a comprehensive identification of lncRNAs but also useful clues for molecular mechanism response to HS in jujube.