Abstract
Background: DNA methylation plays an important role in the growth and development of plants in response to various abiotic stresses. Salicylic acid (SA) is an important signaling molecule that is synthesized by plants and induces the expression of defense genes. Results: In this paper, we investigated the molecular mechanisms by which an upstream regulator (ACD6) in the SA pathway, an ABA pathway-related gene (ACO3), and a stress resistance gene (GSTF14) were induced by various abiotic stresses. The results demonstrated that abiotic stresses, including drought, cold, and salt stresses, induced the demethylation of the repeats in the promoters of ACD6, ACO3, and GSTF14 and transcriptionally activated their expression. Furthermore, our results revealed that ROS1-mediated DNA demethylation plays an important role in the process of transcriptional activation of ACD6 and GSTF14 when Arabidopsis plants were under cold stress.Conclusions: Our results confirmed that ROS1 plays an important role in the process of defense genes in the SA pathway and stress resistance gene GSTF14 in response to abiotic stresses.