scholarly journals Ascorbic acid modulation by ABI4 transcriptional repression of VTC2 in the salt tolerance of Arabidopsis

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiamusiya Kakan ◽  
Yanwen Yu ◽  
Shenghui Li ◽  
Xiaoying Li ◽  
Rongfeng Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Abscisic acid (ABA) plays an important role in plant abiotic stress responses, and ABA INSENSITIVE 4 (ABI4) is a pivotal transcription factor in the ABA signaling pathway. In Arabidopsis, ABI4 negatively regulates salt tolerance; however, the mechanism through which ABI4 regulates plant salt tolerance is poorly understood. Our previous study showed that ABI4 directly binds to the promoter of the VITAMIN C DEFECTIVE 2 (VTC2) gene, inhibiting the transcription of VTC2 and ascorbic acid (AsA) biosynthesis. Results In the present study, we found that treatment with exogenous AsA could alleviate salt stress sensitivity of ABI4-overexpressing transgenic plants. The decreased AsA content and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in ABI4-overexpressing seedlings under salt treatment indicated that AsA-promoted ROS scavenging was related to ABI4-mediated salt tolerance. Gene expression analysis showed that ABI4 was induced at the early stage of salt stress, giving rise to reduced VTC2 expression. Accordingly, the abundance of the VTC2 protein decreased under the same salt stress conditions, and was absent in the ABI4 loss-of-function mutants, suggesting that the transcriptional inhibition of ABI4 on VTC2 resulted in the attenuation of VTC2 function. In addition, other encoding genes in the AsA biosynthesis and recycling pathways showed different responses to salt stress, demonstrating that AsA homeostasis is complicated under salinity stress. Conclusions This study elucidates the negative modulation of ABI4 in salt stress tolerance through the regulation of AsA biosynthesis and ROS accumulation in plants.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiamusiya Kakan ◽  
Yanwen Yu ◽  
Shenghui Li ◽  
Xiaoying Li ◽  
Rongfeng Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background:Abscisic acid (ABA) plays an important role in plant abiotic stress responses, and ABA INSENSITIVE 4 (ABI4) is a pivotal transcription factor in the ABA signaling pathway. In Arabidopsis, ABI4 negatively regulates salt tolerance; however, the mechanism through which ABI4 regulates plant salt tolerance is poorly understood. Our previous study showed that ABI4 directly binds to the promoter of the VITAMIN C DEFECTIVE 2 (VTC2) gene, inhibiting the transcription of VTC2 and ascorbic acid (AsA) biosynthesis.Results: In the present study, we found that treatment with exogenous AsA could alleviate salt stress sensitivity of ABI4-overexpressing transgenic plants. The decreased AsA content and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in ABI4-overexpressing seedlings under salt treatment indicated that AsA-promoted ROS scavenging was related to ABI4-mediated salt tolerance. Gene expression analysis showed that ABI4 was induced at the early stage of salt stress, giving rise to reduced VTC2 expression. Accordingly, the abundance of the VTC2 protein decreased under the same salt stress conditions, and was absent in the ABI4 loss-of-function mutants, suggesting that the transcriptional inhibition of ABI4 on VTC2 resulted in the attenuation of VTC2 function. In addition, other encoding genes in the AsA biosynthesis and recycling pathways showed different responses to salt stress, demonstrating that AsA homeostasis is complicated under salinity stress. Conclusions: This study elucidates the negative modulation of ABI4 in salt stress tolerance through the regulation of AsA biosynthesis and ROS accumulation in plants.


2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (8) ◽  
pp. 1829-1841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guochun Wu ◽  
Sha Li ◽  
Xiaochuan Li ◽  
Yunhong Liu ◽  
Shuangshuang Zhao ◽  
...  

Abstract Alternative oxidase (AOX) has been reported to be involved in mitochondrial function and redox homeostasis, thus playing an essential role in plant growth as well as stress responses. However, its biological functions in nonseed plants have not been well characterized. Here, we report that AOX participates in plant salt tolerance regulation in moss Physcomitrella patens (P. patens). AOX is highly conserved and localizes to mitochondria in P. patens. We observed that PpAOX rescued the impaired cyanide (CN)-resistant alternative (Alt) respiratory pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) aox1a mutant. PpAOX transcription and Alt respiration were induced upon salt stress in P. patens. Using homologous recombination, we generated PpAOX-overexpressing lines (PpAOX OX). PpAOX OX plants exhibited higher Alt respiration and lower total reactive oxygen species accumulation under salt stress condition. Strikingly, we observed that PpAOX OX plants displayed decreased salt tolerance. Overexpression of PpAOX disturbed redox homeostasis in chloroplasts. Meanwhile, chloroplast structure was adversely affected in PpAOX OX plants in contrast to wild-type (WT) P. patens. We found that photosynthetic activity in PpAOX OX plants was also lower compared with that in WT. Together, our work revealed that AOX participates in plant salt tolerance in P. patens and there is a functional link between mitochondria and chloroplast under challenging conditions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 3347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yayun Wang ◽  
Hui Zhao ◽  
Hua Qin ◽  
Zixuan Li ◽  
Hai Liu ◽  
...  

The root plays an important role in the responses of plants to stresses, but the detailed mechanisms of roots in stress responses are still obscure. The GDP-mannose pyrophosphate synthetase (GMPase) OsVTC1-3 is a key factor of ascorbic acid (AsA) synthesis in rice roots. The present study showed that the transcript of OsVTC1-3 was induced by salt stress in roots, but not in leaves. Inhibiting the expression of OsVTC1-3 by RNA interfering (RI) technology significantly impaired the tolerance of rice to salt stress. The roots of OsVTC1-3 RI plants rapidly produced more O2−, and later accumulated amounts of H2O2 under salt stress, indicating the impaired tolerance of OsVTC1-3 RI plants to salt stress due to the decreasing ability of scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS). Moreover, exogenous AsA restored the salt tolerance of OsVTC1-3 RI plants, indicating that the AsA synthesis in rice roots is an important factor for the response of rice to salt stress. Further studies showed that the salt-induced AsA synthesis was limited in the roots of OsVTC1-3 RI plants. The above results showed that specifically regulating AsA synthesis to scavenge ROS in rice roots was one of important factors in enhancing the tolerance of rice to salt stress.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Ping Lee ◽  
Christian Funk ◽  
Alexander Erban ◽  
Joachim Kopka ◽  
Karin I. Köhl ◽  
...  

Salinity strongly impairs plant growth and development. Natural genetic variation can be used to dissect complex traits such as plant salt tolerance. We used 16 accessions of the halophytic species Eutrema salsugineum (previously called Thellungiella salsuginea (Pallas) O.E.Schulz, Thellungiella halophila (C.A.Meyer) O.E. Schulz and Thellungiella botschantzevii D.A.German to investigate their natural variation in salinity tolerance. Although all accessions showed survival and growth up to 700 mM NaCl in hydroponic culture, their relative salt tolerance varied considerably. All accessions accumulated the compatible solutes proline, sucrose, glucose and fructose and the polyamines putrescine and spermine. Relative salt tolerance was not correlated with the content of any of the investigated solutes. We compared the metabolomes and transcriptomes of Arabidopsis thaliana (L. Heynh.) Col-0 and E. salsugineum Yukon under control and salt stress conditions. Higher content of several metabolites in Yukon compared with Col-0 under control conditions indicated metabolic pre-adaptation to salinity in the halophyte. Most metabolic salt responses in Yukon took place at 200 mM NaCl, whereas few additional changes were observed between 200 and 500 mM. The opposite trend was observed for the transcriptome, with only little overlap between salt-regulated genes in the two species. In addition, only about half of the salt-regulated Yukon unigenes had orthologues in Col-0.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (51) ◽  
pp. 13123-13128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunzhao Zhao ◽  
Omar Zayed ◽  
Zheping Yu ◽  
Wei Jiang ◽  
Peipei Zhu ◽  
...  

The perception and relay of cell-wall signals are critical for plants to regulate growth and stress responses, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We found that the cell-wall leucine-rich repeat extensins (LRX) 3/4/5 are critical for plant salt tolerance in Arabidopsis. The LRXs physically associate with the RAPID ALKALINIZATION FACTOR (RALF) peptides RALF22/23, which in turn interact with the plasma membrane-localized receptor-like protein kinase FERONIA (FER). The lrx345 triple mutant as well as fer mutant plants display retarded growth and salt hypersensitivity, which are mimicked by overexpression of RALF22/23. Salt stress promotes S1P protease-dependent release of mature RALF22 peptides. Treatment of roots with mature RALF22/23 peptides or salt stress causes the internalization of FER. Our results suggest that the LRXs, RALFs, and FER function as a module to transduce cell-wall signals to regulate plant growth and salt stress tolerance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (18) ◽  
pp. 5589-5602
Author(s):  
Shasha Liu ◽  
Rui Yang ◽  
Miao Liu ◽  
Shizhong Zhang ◽  
Kang Yan ◽  
...  

Abstract Although the salt overly sensitive (SOS) pathway plays essential roles in conferring salt tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana, the regulatory mechanism underlying SOS gene expression remains largely unclear. In this study, AtPLATZ2 was found to function as a direct transcriptional suppressor of CBL4/SOS3 and CBL10/SCaBP8 in the Arabidopsis salt stress response. Compared with wild-type plants, transgenic plants constitutively overexpressing AtPLATZ2 exhibited increased sensitivity to salt stress. Loss of function of PLATZ2 had no observed salt stress phenotype in Arabidopsis, while the double mutant of PLATZ2 and PLATZ7 led to weaker salt stress tolerance than wild-type plants. Overexpression of AtPLATZ2 in transgenic plants decreased the expression of CBL4/SOS3 and CBL10/SCaBP8 under both normal and saline conditions. AtPLATZ2 directly bound to A/T-rich sequences in the CBL4/SOS3 and CBL10/SCaBP8 promoters in vitro and in vivo, and inhibited CBL4/SOS3 promoter activity in the plant leaves. The salt sensitivity of #11 plants constitutively overexpressing AtPLATZ2 was restored by the overexpression of CBL4/SOS3 and CBL10/SCaBP8. Salt stress-induced Na+ accumulation in both the shoots and roots was more exaggerated in AtPLATZ2-overexpressing plants than in the wild type. The salt stress-induced Na+ accumulation in #11 seedlings was also rescued by the overexpression of CBL4/SOS3 and CBL10/SCaBP8. Furthermore, the transcription of AtPLATZ2 was induced in response to salt stress. Collectively, these results suggest that AtPLATZ2 suppresses plant salt tolerance by directly inhibiting CBL4/SOS3 and CBL10/SCaBP8, and functions redundantly with PLATZ7.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Liu ◽  
Yang-Yang Li ◽  
Zhi-Cheng Zhou ◽  
Xiaohua Xiang ◽  
Xin Liu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In plants, reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced following the expression of the respiratory burst oxidase homolog (Rboh) gene are important regulators of stress responses. However, little is known about how plants acclimate to salt stress through the Rboh-derived ROS signaling pathway. Here, we showed that a 400-bp fragment of the tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) NtRbohE promoter played a critical role in the salt response. Using yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) screens, NtbHLH123, a bHLH transcription factor, was identified as an upstream partner of the NtRbohE promoter. These interactions were confirmed by Y1H, electrophoretic mobility assay, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Overexpression of NtbHLH123 resulted in greater resistance to salt stress, while NtbHLH123-silenced plants had reduced resistance to salt stress. We also found that NtbHLH123 positively regulates the expression of NtRbohE and ROS production soon after salt stress treatment. Moreover, knockout of NtRbohE in the 35S::NtbHLH123 background resulted in reduced expression of ROS-scavenging and salt stress-related genes and salt tolerance, suggesting that NtbHLH123-regulated salt tolerance is dependent on the NtbHLH123-NtRbohE signaling pathway. Our data show that NtbHLH123 is a positive regulator and acts as a molecular switch to control a Rboh-dependent mechanism in response to salt stress in plants.


Rice ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Zhang ◽  
Yan Long ◽  
Jingjing Huang ◽  
Jixing Xia

Abstract Background Salt stress threatens crop yields all over the world. Many NAC transcription factors have been reported to be involved in different abiotic stress responses, but it remains unclear how loss of these transcription factors alters the transcriptomes of plants. Previous reports have demonstrated that overexpression of OsNAC45 enhances salt and drought tolerance in rice, and that OsNAC45 may regulate the expression of two specific genes, OsPM1 and OsLEA3–1. Results Here, we found that ABA repressed, and NaCl promoted, the expression of OsNAC45 in roots. Immunostaining showed that OsNAC45 was localized in all root cells and was mainly expressed in the stele. Loss of OsNAC45 decreased the sensitivity of rice plants to ABA and over-expressing this gene had the opposite effect, which demonstrated that OsNAC45 played an important role during ABA signal responses. Knockout of OsNAC45 also resulted in more ROS accumulation in roots and increased sensitivity of rice to salt stress. Transcriptome sequencing assay found that thousands of genes were differently expressed in OsNAC45-knockout plants. Most of the down-regulated genes participated in plant stress responses. Quantitative real time RT-PCR suggested that seven genes may be regulated by OsNAC45 including OsCYP89G1, OsDREB1F, OsEREBP2, OsERF104, OsPM1, OsSAMDC2, and OsSIK1. Conclusions These results indicate that OsNAC45 plays vital roles in ABA signal responses and salt tolerance in rice. Further characterization of this gene may help us understand ABA signal pathway and breed rice plants that are more tolerant to salt stress.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 6100
Author(s):  
Yuki Kawakami ◽  
Shahin Imran ◽  
Maki Katsuhara ◽  
Yuichi Tada

We characterized an Na+ transporter SvHKT1;1 from a halophytic turf grass, Sporobolus virginicus. SvHKT1;1 mediated inward and outward Na+ transport in Xenopus laevis oocytes and did not complement K+ transporter-defective mutant yeast. SvHKT1;1 did not complement athkt1;1 mutant Arabidopsis, suggesting its distinguishable function from other typical HKT1 transporters. The transcript was abundant in the shoots compared with the roots in S. virginicus and was upregulated by severe salt stress (500 mM NaCl), but not by lower stress. SvHKT1;1-expressing Arabidopsis lines showed higher shoot Na+ concentrations and lower salt tolerance than wild type (WT) plants under nonstress and salt stress conditions and showed higher Na+ uptake rate in roots at the early stage of salt treatment. These results suggested that constitutive expression of SvHKT1;1 enhanced Na+ uptake in root epidermal cells, followed by increased Na+ transport to shoots, which led to reduced salt tolerance. However, Na+ concentrations in phloem sap of the SvHKT1;1 lines were higher than those in WT plants under salt stress. Based on this result, together with the induction of the SvHKT1;1 transcription under high salinity stress, it was suggested that SvHKT1;1 plays a role in preventing excess shoot Na+ accumulation in S. virginicus.


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