scholarly journals Melatonin Enhances Drought Tolerance by Regulating Leaf Stomatal Behavior, Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism, and Related Gene Expression in Maize Plants

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengfeng Zhao ◽  
Haoxue Guo ◽  
Jiarui Wang ◽  
Yifan Wang ◽  
Renhe Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Drought Stress ◽  
Drought Tolerance ◽  
Nitrogen Metabolism ◽  
Tca Cycle ◽  
Related Gene ◽  
Stomatal Behavior ◽  
N Metabolism ◽  
C And N ◽  
Maize Plants

It is commonly known that exogenously applied melatonin can alleviate the impact of drought stress, but the mechanism used by melatonin to regulate stomatal behavior and carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) metabolism to increase drought resistance remains elusive. Herein, our aim was to investigate the influence of exogenous melatonin on the regulation of C and N metabolism in maize plants under water deficit. In this study, we analyzed stomatal behavior, the key components of C and N metabolism, and the gene expression and activity of enzymes involved in the C and N metabolism in maize plants. The results showed that the application of melatonin (100 μM) significantly increased maize growth and sustained the opening of stomata, and secondarily increased the photosynthetic capacity in maize. Under drought stress, foliar application of melatonin induced the gene transcription and activities of sucrose phosphate synthetase, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, and citrate synthase, resulting in the enhancement of sucrose and starch synthesis and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. This enhancement in sugar biosynthesis and the TCA cycle might lead to stronger N assimilation. As anticipated, NO3– reduction and NH4+ assimilation were also strengthened after melatonin treatment under drought stress. An increase was observed in some key enzymatic activities and transcription involved in nitrogen metabolism, such as that of nitrate reductase, nitrite reductase, glutamate synthase, and glutamine synthetase, in melatonin-treated, drought-stressed maize. Moreover, melatonin attenuated the drought-induced damage by reducing protein degradation and increasing the level of proline. Conclusively, our results indicate that exogenous melatonin enhances drought tolerance in maize via promoting stomatal opening and regulating C and N metabolism and related gene expression.

Triadimefon Induced C and N Metabolism and Root Ultra-Structural Changes for Drought Stress Protection in Soybean at Flowering Stage

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 222-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Zhou ◽  
Yuanyuan Wu ◽  
Zheng Chonglan ◽  
Xinghua Xing ◽  
Lixin Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drought Stress ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Flowering Stage ◽  
Stress Protection ◽  
N Metabolism ◽  
C And N

scholarly journals Physiological, Biochemical and Transcriptomic Analysis of the Aerial Parts (Leaf-Blade and Petiole) of Asarum sieboldii Responding to Drought Stress

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (24) ◽  
pp. 13402
Author(s):  
Fawang Liu ◽  
Tahir Ali ◽  
Zhong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Drought Stress ◽  
Essential Oil ◽  
Drought Tolerance ◽  
Leaf Blade ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Biomass Energy ◽  
Cdna Libraries ◽  
Regulatory Pathways ◽  
Aerial Parts

Asarum sieboldii Miq. is a leading economic crop and a traditional medicinal herb in China. Leaf-blade and petiole are the only aerial tissues of A. sieboldii during the vegetative growth, playing a vital role in the accumulation and transportation of biomass energy. They also act as critical indicators of drought in agricultural management, especially for crops having underground stems. During drought, variations in the morphology and gene expression of the leaves and petioles are used to control agricultural irrigation and production. Besides, such stress can also alter the differential gene expression in these tissues. However, little is known about the drought-tolerant character of the aerial parts of A. sieboldii. In this study, we examined the physiological, biochemical and transcriptomic responses to the drought stress in the leaf blades and petioles of A. sieboldii. The molecular mechanism, involving in drought stress response, was elucidated by constructing the cDNA libraries and performing transcriptomic sequencing. Under drought stress, a total of 2,912 and 2,887 unigenes were differentially expressed in the leaf blade and petiole, respectively. The detection of many transcription factors and functional genes demonstrated that multiple regulatory pathways were involved in drought tolerance. In response to drought, the leaf blade and petiole displayed a general physiological character, a higher SOD and POD activity, a higher MDA content and lower chlorophyll content. Three unigenes encoding POD were up-regulated, which can improve POD activity. Essential oil in petiole was extracted. The relative contents of methyleugenol and safrole in essential oil were increased from 0.01% to 0.05%, and 3.89% to 16.97%, respectively, while myristicin slightly reduced from 24.87% to 21.52%. Additionally, an IGS unigene, involved in eugenol biobiosynthesis, was found up-regulated under drought stress, which was predicated to be responsible for the accumulation of methyleugenol and safrole. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were characterized in of A. sieboldii, and a total of 5,466 SSRs were identified. Among them, mono-nucleotides were the most abundant repeat units, accounting for 44.09% followed by tri-, tetra-, penta and hexa-nucleotide repeats. Overall, the present work provides a valuable resource for the population genetics studies of A. sieboldii. Besides, it provides much genomic information for the functional dissection of the drought-resistance in A. sieboldii., which will be useful to understand the bio-regulatory mechanisms linked with drought-tolerance to enhance its yield.

scholarly journals Early Drought-Responsive Genes Are Variable and Relevant to Drought Tolerance

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1657-1670
Author(s):  
Cheng He ◽  
Yicong Du ◽  
Junjie Fu ◽  
Erliang Zeng ◽  
Sunghun Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Drought Stress ◽  
Drought Tolerance ◽  
Small Rnas ◽  
Gene Expression Regulation ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Transcriptomic Data ◽  
Number Variation ◽  
Three Stages

Drought stress is an important crop yield limiting factor worldwide. Plant physiological responses to drought stress are driven by changes in gene expression. While drought-responsive genes (DRGs) have been identified in maize, regulation patterns of gene expression during progressive water deficits remain to be elucidated. In this study, we generated time-series transcriptomic data from the maize inbred line B73 under well-watered and drought conditions. Comparisons between the two conditions identified 8,626 DRGs and the stages (early, middle, and late drought) at which DRGs occurred. Different functional groups of genes were regulated at the three stages. Specifically, early and middle DRGs display higher copy number variation among diverse Zea mays lines, and they exhibited stronger associations with drought tolerance as compared to late DRGs. In addition, correlation of expression between small RNAs (sRNAs) and DRGs from the same samples identified 201 negatively sRNA/DRG correlated pairs, including genes showing high levels of association with drought tolerance, such as two glutamine synthetase genes, gln2 and gln6. The characterization of dynamic gene responses to progressive drought stresses indicates important adaptive roles of early and middle DRGs, as well as roles played by sRNAs in gene expression regulation upon drought stress.

scholarly journals Transcriptome Analysis of Drought-Resistant and Drought-Sensitive Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) Genotypes in Response to PEG-Induced Drought Stress

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salah E. Abdel-Ghany ◽  
Fahad Ullah ◽  
Asa Ben-Hur ◽  
Anireddy S. N. Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Drought Stress ◽  
Drought Tolerance ◽  
Transcriptome Analysis ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Seedling Stage ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Drought Resistant ◽  
Sorghum Genotypes ◽  
Resistant Genotypes

Drought is a major limiting factor of crop yields. In response to drought, plants reprogram their gene expression, which ultimately regulates a multitude of biochemical and physiological processes. The timing of this reprogramming and the nature of the drought-regulated genes in different genotypes are thought to confer differential tolerance to drought stress. Sorghum is a highly drought-tolerant crop and has been increasingly used as a model cereal to identify genes that confer tolerance. Also, there is considerable natural variation in resistance to drought in different sorghum genotypes. Here, we evaluated drought resistance in four genotypes to polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress at the seedling stage and performed transcriptome analysis in seedlings of sorghum genotypes that are either drought-resistant or drought-sensitive to identify drought-regulated changes in gene expression that are unique to drought-resistant genotypes of sorghum. Our analysis revealed that about 180 genes are differentially regulated in response to drought stress only in drought-resistant genotypes and most of these (over 70%) are up-regulated in response to drought. Among these, about 70 genes are novel with no known function and the remaining are transcription factors, signaling and stress-related proteins implicated in drought tolerance in other crops. This study revealed a set of drought-regulated genes, including many genes encoding uncharacterized proteins that are associated with drought tolerance at the seedling stage.

scholarly journals Raffinose synthase enhances drought tolerance through raffinose synthesis or galactinol hydrolysis in maize and Arabidopsis plants

2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (23) ◽  
pp. 8064-8077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Li ◽  
Yumin Zhang ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Xudong Li ◽  
Guanglong Hao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drought Stress ◽  
Drought Tolerance ◽  
Stress Tolerance ◽  
Plant Cells ◽  
Plant Leaves ◽  
Drought Stress Tolerance ◽  
Raffinose Synthase ◽  
Detached Leaves ◽  
Maize Plants ◽  
Anabolic Pathway

Raffinose and its precursor galactinol accumulate in plant leaves during abiotic stress. RAFFINOSE SYNTHASE (RAFS) catalyzes raffinose formation by transferring a galactosyl group of galactinol to sucrose. However, whether RAFS contributes to plant drought tolerance and, if so, by what mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we report that expression of RAFS from maize (or corn, Zea mays) (ZmRAFS) is induced by drought, heat, cold, and salinity stresses. We found that zmrafs mutant maize plants completely lack raffinose and hyper-accumulate galactinol and are more sensitive to drought stress than the corresponding null-segregant (NS) plants. This indicated that ZmRAFS and its product raffinose contribute to plant drought tolerance. ZmRAFS overexpression in Arabidopsis enhanced drought stress tolerance by increasing myo-inositol levels via ZmRAFS-mediated galactinol hydrolysis in the leaves due to sucrose insufficiency in leaf cells and also enhanced raffinose synthesis in the seeds. Supplementation of sucrose to detached leaves converted ZmRAFS from hydrolyzing galactinol to synthesizing raffinose. Taken together, we demonstrate that ZmRAFS enhances plant drought tolerance through either raffinose synthesis or galactinol hydrolysis, depending on sucrose availability in plant cells. These results provide new avenues to improve plant drought stress tolerance through manipulation of the raffinose anabolic pathway.

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