Role of the endogenous fungal metabolites in the plant growth improvement and stress tolerance

Numerous studies have demonstrated the potential of sugar beet to lose the final sugar yield under water limiting regime. Ample evidences have revealed the important role of mineral nutrition in increasing plant tolerance to abiotic stresses. Despite the vital role of calcium (Ca2+) in plant growth and development, as well as in stress responses as an intracellular messenger, its role in alleviating drought stress in sugar beet has been rarely addressed. Here, an attempt was undertaken to investigate whether, and to what extent, foliar application of Ca2+ confers drought stress tolerance in sugar beet plants exposed to drought stress. To achieve this goal, sugar beet plants, which were grown in a high throughput phenotyping platform, were sprayed with Ca2+ and submitted to drought stress. The results showed that foliar application of Ca2+ increased the level of magnesium and silicon in the leaves, promoted plant growth, height, and leaf coverage area as well as chlorophyll level. Ca2+, in turn, increased the carbohydrate levels in leaves under drought condition and regulated transcriptionally the genes involved in sucrose transport (BvSUC3 and BvTST3). Subsequently, Ca2+ enhanced the root biomass and simultaneously led to induction of root (BvSUC3 and BvTST1) sucrose transporters which eventually supported the loading of more sucrose into beetroot under drought stress. Metabolite analysis revealed that the beneficial effect of Ca2+ in tolerance to drought induced-oxidative stress is most likely mediated by higher glutathione pools, increased levels of free polyamine putrescine (Put), and lower levels of amino acid gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Taken together, this work demonstrates that foliar application of Ca2+ is a promising fertilization strategy to improve mineral nutrition efficiency, sugar metabolism, redox state, and thus, drought stress tolerance.

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Assessing the Potential Role of Compost, PGPR, and AMF in Improving Tomato Plant Growth, Yield, Fruit Quality, and Water Stress Tolerance

Journal of soil science and plant nutrition ◽

10.1007/s42729-021-00684-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Abdel-ilah Tahiri ◽

Abdelilah Meddich ◽

Anas Raklami ◽

Abdelrahman Alahmad ◽

Noura Bechtaoui ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Stress ◽

Plant Growth ◽

Stress Tolerance ◽

Fruit Quality ◽

Tomato Plant ◽

Potential Role ◽

Growth Yield ◽

Water Stress Tolerance

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Contrapuntal role of ABA: Does it mediate stress tolerance or plant growth retardation under long-term drought stress?

Gene ◽

10.1016/j.gene.2012.06.076 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 506 (2) ◽

pp. 265-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 147

Author(s):

Nese Sreenivasulu ◽

Vokkaliga T. Harshavardhan ◽

Geetha Govind ◽

Christiane Seiler ◽

Ajay Kohli

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Plant Growth ◽

Stress Tolerance ◽

Growth Retardation

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The Role of Membrane Transporters in Plant Growth and Development, and Abiotic Stress Tolerance

10.20944/preprints202108.0411.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rafaqat Ali Gill ◽

Sunny Ahmar ◽

Basharat Ali ◽

Muhammad Hamzah Saleem ◽

Muhammad Umar Khan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Abiotic Stress ◽

Plant Growth ◽

Stress Tolerance ◽

Growth And Development ◽

Toxic Elements ◽

Grain Quality ◽

Abiotic Stress Tolerance ◽

Membrane Transporters ◽

Plant Growth And Development

Membrane transporters (MTs) are mainly localized at the plasma membrane (PM), tonoplast and vacuolar membrane (VM) of cells in all plant organs. Their work is to maintain the cellular homeostasis by controlling ionic movements across PM channels from roots to upper plant parts, xylem loading and remobilization of sugar molecules from photosynthesis tissues in the leaf (source) to roots, stem and seeds (sink) via phloem loading. The plant’s whole source-to-sink relationship is regulated by multiple transporting proteins in a highly sophisticated manner and driven based on different stages of plant growth and development (PG&D), and environmental changes. The MTs play a pivotal role in PG&D in terms of increased plant height, branches/tiller numbers, enhanced numbers, length and filled panicles per plant, seed yield and grain quality. Dynamic climatic changes disturbed the ionic balance (salt, drought and heavy metals) and sugar supply (cold and heat stress). Due to poor selectivity, some of the MTs also uptake toxic elements in the roots that negatively impact on PG&D, later on also exported to upper parts and then deteriorate the grain quality. As an adaptive strategy, in response to salt and HMs plants activated PM and VM localized MTs that export toxic elements into vacuole, and also translocate in the root’s tips and shoot. However, in case of drought, cold and heat stresses, MTs increased the water and sugar supply to all organs. In this review, we mainly reviewed recent literature from Arabidopsis, halophytes, and major field crops such as rice, wheat, maize and oilseed rape to argue on the global role of MTs in PG&D and abiotic stress tolerance. We also discussed the gene expression level changes and genomic variations within a species as well as within a family in response to developmental and environmental cues.

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Novel Mutant Alleles Reveal a Role of the Extra-Large G Protein in Rice Grain Filling, Panicle Architecture, Plant Growth, and Disease Resistance

Frontiers in Plant Science ◽

10.3389/fpls.2021.782960 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Akshaya K. Biswal ◽

Ting-Ying Wu ◽

Daisuke Urano ◽

Rémi Pelissier ◽

Jean-Benoit Morel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Disease Resistance ◽

Plant Growth ◽

Stress Tolerance ◽

G Protein ◽

Grain Filling ◽

Grain Weight ◽

Rice Grain ◽

Α Subunit ◽

Panicle Architecture

Plant growth and grain filling are the key agronomical traits for grain weight and yield of rice. The continuous improvement in rice yield is required for a future sustainable global economy and food security. The heterotrimeric G protein complex containing a canonical α subunit (RGA1) couples extracellular signals perceived by receptors to modulate cell function including plant development and grain weight. We hypothesized that, besides RGA1, three atypical, extra-large GTP-binding protein (XLG) subunits also regulate panicle architecture, plant growth, development, grain weight, and disease resistance. Here, we identified a role of XLGs in agronomic traits and stress tolerance by genetically ablating all three rice XLGs individually and in combination using the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in rice. For this study, eight (three single, two double, and three triple) null mutants were selected. Three XLG proteins combinatorically regulate seed filling, because loss confers a decrease in grain weight from 14% with loss of one XLG and loss of three to 32% decrease in grain weight. Null mutations in XLG2 and XLG4 increase grain size. The mutants showed significantly reduced panicle length and number per plant including lesser number of grains per panicle compared to the controls. Loss-of-function of all individual XLGs contributed to 9% more aerial biomass compared to wild type (WT). The double mutant showed improved salinity tolerance. Moreover, loss of the XLG gene family confers hypersensitivity to pathogens. Our findings suggest that the non-canonical XLGs play important roles in regulating rice plant growth, grain filling, panicle phenotype, stress tolerance, and disease resistance. Genetic manipulation of XLGs has the potential to improve agronomic properties in rice.

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