Abscisic acid pathway involved in the regulation of watermelon fruit ripening and quality trait evolution

Positive-sense RNA viruses have a small genome with very limited coding capacity and are highly reliant on host factors to fulfill their infection. However, few host factors have been identified to participate in wheat yellow mosaic virus (WYMV) infection. Here, we demonstrate that wheat (Triticum aestivum) light-induced protein (TaLIP) interacts with the WYMV nuclear inclusion b protein (NIb). A bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BIFC) assay displayed that the subcellular distribution patterns of TaLIP were altered by NIb in Nicotiana benthamiana. Transcription of TaLIP was significantly decreased by WYMV infection and TaLIP-silencing wheat plants displayed more susceptibility to WYMV in comparison with the control plants, suggesting that knockdown of TaLIP impaired host resistance. Moreover, the transcription level of TaLIP was induced by exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) stimuli in wheat, while knockdown of TaLIP significantly repressed the expression of ABA-related genes such as wheat abscisic acid insensitive 5 (TaABI5), abscisic acid insensitive 8 (TaABI8), pyrabatin resistance 1-Llike (TaPYL1), and pyrabatin resistance 3-Llike (TaPYL3). Collectively, our results suggest that the interaction of NIb with TaLIP facilitated the virus infection possibly by disturbing the ABA signaling pathway in wheat.

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Contrasting dynamics in abscisic acid metabolism in different Fragaria spp. during fruit ripening and identification of involved enzymes

Journal of Experimental Botany ◽

10.1093/jxb/eraa503 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nicolás E Figueroa ◽

Thomas Hoffmann ◽

Klaus Olbricht ◽

Suzanne R Abrams ◽

Wilfried Schwab

Keyword(s):

Abscisic Acid ◽

Fruit Ripening ◽

Plant Hormone ◽

Acid Metabolism ◽

Developmental Stages ◽

Phaseic Acid ◽

Aba Metabolism ◽

Physiological Processes ◽

Dihydrophaseic Acid ◽

Abscisic Acid Metabolism

Abstract Abscisic acid (ABA) is a key hormone in non-climacteric Fragaria spp, regulating multiple physiological processes throughout fruit ripening. Its level increases during ripening, and it promotes fruit (receptacle) development. However, its metabolism in the fruit is largely unknown. We analyzed the levels of ABA and its catabolites at different developmental stages of strawberry ripening in diploid and octoploid genotypes and identified two functional ABA-glucosyltransferases (FvUGT71A49 and FvUGT73AC3) and two regiospecific ABA-8’-hydroxylases (FaCYP707A4a and FaCYP707A1/3). ABA-glucose-ester content increased during ripening in diploid F. vesca varieties but decreased in octoploid F. xananassa. Dihydrophaseic acid content increased throughout ripening in all analyzed receptacles, while 7’-hydroxy-ABA and neo-phaseic acid did not show significant changes during ripening. In the studied F. vesca varieties, the receptacle seems to be the main tissue for ABA metabolism, as the content of ABA and its metabolites in the receptacle was generally 100 times higher than in achenes, respectively. The accumulation patterns of ABA catabolites and transcriptomic data from the literature show that all strawberry fruits produce and metabolize considerable amounts of the plant hormone ABA during ripening, which is therefore a conserved process, but also illustrate the diversity of this metabolic pathway which is species, variety and tissue dependent.

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