CsGSTU8, a Glutathione S-Transferase From Camellia sinensis, Is Regulated by CsWRKY48 and Plays a Positive Role in Drought Tolerance

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) constitute a large family of enzymes with a wide range of cellular functions. Recently, plant GSTs have gained a great deal of attention due to their involvement in the detoxification of electrophilic xenobiotics and peroxides under adverse environmental conditions, such as salt, cold, UV-B and drought stress. A previous study reported that a GST gene (CsGSTU8) in tea plant was distinctly induced in response to drought, suggesting this gene plays a critical role in the drought stress response. In this study, by using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter lines, we further demonstrated that CsGSTU8 was upregulated in response to drought stress and exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. Overexpression of CsGSTU8 in Arabidopsis resulted in enhanced drought tolerance as indicated by the improved scavenging of excess amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under drought conditions. Furthermore, we found that CsWRKY48 acts as a transcriptional activator and that its expression is induced in response to drought stress and ABA treatment. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs), dual-luciferase (LUC) assays and transient expression assays in tea plant leaves revealed that CsWRKY48 directly binds to the W-box elements in the promoter of CsGSTU8 and activates its expression. Taken together, our results provide additional knowledge of drought stress responses in tea plant.

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A Novel WRKY Transcription Factor from Ipomoea trifida, ItfWRKY70, Confers Drought Tolerance in Sweet Potato

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms23020686 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 686

Author(s):

Sifan Sun ◽

Xu Li ◽

Shaopei Gao ◽

Nan Nie ◽

Huan Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Transgenic Plants ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Sweet Potato ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Leaf Tissue ◽

Stomatal Aperture ◽

Ros Scavenging ◽

Ipomoea Trifida ◽

Positive Role

WRKY transcription factors are one of the important families in plants, and have important roles in plant growth, abiotic stress responses, and defense regulation. In this study, we isolated a WRKY gene, ItfWRKY70, from the wild relative of sweet potato Ipomoea trifida (H.B.K.) G. Don. This gene was highly expressed in leaf tissue and strongly induced by 20% PEG6000 and 100 μM abscisic acid (ABA). Subcellar localization analyses indicated that ItfWRKY70 was localized in the nucleus. Overexpression of ItfWRKY70 significantly increased drought tolerance in transgenic sweet potato plants. The content of ABA and proline, and the activity of SOD and POD were significantly increased, whereas the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and H2O2 were decreased in transgenic plants under drought stress. Overexpression of ItfWRKY70 up-regulated the genes involved in ABA biosynthesis, stress-response, ROS-scavenging system, and stomatal aperture in transgenic plants under drought stress. Taken together, these results demonstrated that ItfWRKY70 plays a positive role in drought tolerance by accumulating the content of ABA, regulating stomatal aperture and activating the ROS scavenging system in sweet potato.

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Spermine: Its Emerging Role in Regulating Drought Stress Responses in Plants

Cells ◽

10.3390/cells10020261 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 261

Author(s):

Md. Mahadi Hasan ◽

Milan Skalicky ◽

Mohammad Shah Jahan ◽

Md. Nazmul Hossain ◽

Zunaira Anwar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Abiotic Stresses ◽

Defense Mechanisms ◽

Antioxidant Defense ◽

Severe Drought ◽

New Information ◽

Effects Of Drought

In recent years, research on spermine (Spm) has turned up a lot of new information about this essential polyamine, especially as it is able to counteract damage from abiotic stresses. Spm has been shown to protect plants from a variety of environmental insults, but whether it can prevent the adverse effects of drought has not yet been reported. Drought stress increases endogenous Spm in plants and exogenous application of Spm improves the plants’ ability to tolerate drought stress. Spm’s role in enhancing antioxidant defense mechanisms, glyoxalase systems, methylglyoxal (MG) detoxification, and creating tolerance for drought-induced oxidative stress is well documented in plants. However, the influences of enzyme activity and osmoregulation on Spm biosynthesis and metabolism are variable. Spm interacts with other molecules like nitric oxide (NO) and phytohormones such as abscisic acid, salicylic acid, brassinosteroids, and ethylene, to coordinate the reactions necessary for developing drought tolerance. This review focuses on the role of Spm in plants under severe drought stress. We have proposed models to explain how Spm interacts with existing defense mechanisms in plants to improve drought tolerance.

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Phytohormone cross-talk and antioxidant gadgets tussles osmotic stress in indigenous rice landraces during seed germination

10.21203/rs.3.rs-80159/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

R. Anupriya ◽

Sugitha Thankappan ◽

A. Senthil ◽

D. Rajakumar ◽

Geetha S ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Seed Germination ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Cross Talk ◽

Tamil Nadu ◽

Critical Role ◽

Hydrolytic Enzyme ◽

Rice Landraces ◽

Drought Tolerant ◽

Root And Shoot Length

Abstract Seed germination plays a critical role in determining rice productivity under drought stress. We evaluated 100 traditional rice landraces originated from different agro-ecological zones of Tamil Nadu along with drought- susceptible (IR 64) and drought- tolerant (IR 64 DRT) checks. Moisture stress was induced using PEG 6000 and screening done over a range of osmotic potentials (-) 10 bars, (-) 12.5 bars and (-)15 bars for a period of 5 d. Physio-morphological traits such as germination rate, survival per cent, root and shoot length, vigor index, RS ratio and relative water content (RWC) were assessed during early drought stress. We observed significant changes in the seed macromolecules, phytohormone levels (GA and IAA), osmolytes and antioxidant responses (catalase and superoxide dismutase) between drought stress and control treatments. Kuliyadichan registered significantly higher IAA and GA (44% and 35% respectively over drought tolerant check IR 64 DRT) at drought stress, whereas all the landraces showed an elevated catalase activity. In PC analysis, first three PCs captured 88.93% of the total variation; significant differences were detected among genotypes with respect to the studied parameters. Six traditional landraces such as Kuliyadichan, Rajalakshmi, Sabhagidhan, Nootripathu, Chandaikar and Mallikar were selected and their inherent drought tolerance was associated with metabolic responses viz., triggered hydrolytic enzyme activities, hormonal cross-talk, ROS signaling and catalase under drought stress compared to drought sensitive IR64. Hence, these genotypes can be used as potential donor candidates towards genetic improvement of drought tolerance in rice.

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Comparative Proteomics and Physiological Analyses Reveal Important Maize Filling-Kernel Drought-Responsive Genes and Metabolic Pathways

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms20153743 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (15) ◽

pp. 3743 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Xuan Wang ◽

Tinashe Zenda ◽

Songtao Liu ◽

Guo Liu ◽

Hongyu Jin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Protein Interactions ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Metabolic Pathways ◽

Storage Proteins ◽

Seed Storage Proteins ◽

Comparative Proteomics ◽

Venn Diagram ◽

Drought Tolerant

Despite recent scientific headway in deciphering maize (Zea mays L.) drought stress responses, the overall picture of key proteins and genes, pathways, and protein–protein interactions regulating maize filling-kernel drought tolerance is still fragmented. Yet, maize filling-kernel drought stress remains devastating and its study is critical for tolerance breeding. Here, through a comprehensive comparative proteomics analysis of filling-kernel proteomes of two contrasting (drought-tolerant YE8112 and drought-sensitive MO17) inbred lines, we report diverse but key molecular actors mediating drought tolerance in maize. Using isobaric tags for relative quantification approach, a total of 5175 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) were identified from four experimental comparisons. By way of Venn diagram analysis, four critical sets of drought-responsive proteins were mined out and further analyzed by bioinformatics techniques. The YE8112-exclusive DAPs chiefly participated in pathways related to “protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum” and “tryptophan metabolism”, whereas MO17-exclusive DAPs were involved in “starch and sucrose metabolism” and “oxidative phosphorylation” pathways. Most notably, we report that YE8112 kernels were comparatively drought tolerant to MO17 kernels attributable to their redox post translational modifications and epigenetic regulation mechanisms, elevated expression of heat shock proteins, enriched energy metabolism and secondary metabolites biosynthesis, and up-regulated expression of seed storage proteins. Further, comparative physiological analysis and quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction results substantiated the proteomics findings. Our study presents an elaborate understanding of drought-responsive proteins and metabolic pathways mediating maize filling-kernel drought tolerance, and provides important candidate genes for subsequent functional validation.

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Transcriptomic studies reveal a key metabolic pathway contributing to a well-maintained photosynthetic system under drought stress in foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.)

10.7287/peerj.preprints.26860v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Weiping Shi ◽

Jingye Cheng ◽

Xiaojie Wen ◽

Jixiang Wang ◽

Guanyan Shi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Signal Transduction ◽

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Chlorophyll Biosynthesis ◽

Foxtail Millet ◽

Setaria Italica ◽

Parental Lines

Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic factors limiting crop productivity. A better understanding of the effects of drought on millet (Setaria italica L.) production, a model crop for studying drought tolerance, and the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for drought stress responses is vital to improvement of agricultural production. In this study, we exposed the drought resistant F1 hybrid, M79, and its parental lines E1 and H1 to drought stress. Subsequent physiological analysis demonstrated that M79 showed higher photosynthetic energy conversion efficiency and drought tolerance than its parents. A transcriptomic study using leaves collected six days after drought treatment, when the soil water content was about ~20%, identified 3066, 1895, and 2148 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in M79, E1 and H1 compared to the respective untreated controls, respectively. Further analysis revealed 17 Gene Ontology (GO) enrichments and 14 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways in M79, including photosystem II (PSII) oxygen-evolving complex, peroxidase (POD) activity, plant hormone signal transduction, and chlorophyll biosynthesis. Co-regulation analysis suggested that these DEGs in M79 contributed to the formation of a regulatory network involving multiple biological processes and pathways including photosynthesis, signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, redox regulation, hormonal signaling, and osmotic regulation. RNA-seq analysis also showed that some photosynthesis-related DEGs were highly expressed in M79 compared to its parental lines under drought stress. These results indicate that various molecular pathways, including photosynthesis, respond to drought stress in M79, and provide abundant molecular information for further analysis of the underlying mechanism responding to this stress.

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Transcriptomic studies reveal a key metabolic pathway contributing to a well-maintained photosynthetic system under drought stress in foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.)

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.4752 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e4752 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Weiping Shi ◽

Jingye Cheng ◽

Xiaojie Wen ◽

Jixiang Wang ◽

Guanyan Shi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Signal Transduction ◽

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Abiotic Factors ◽

Chlorophyll Biosynthesis ◽

Foxtail Millet ◽

Setaria Italica ◽

Parental Lines

Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic factors limiting crop productivity. A better understanding of the effects of drought on millet (Setaria italica L.) production, a model crop for studying drought tolerance, and the underlying molecular mechanisms responsible for drought stress responses is vital to improvement of agricultural production. In this study, we exposed the drought resistant F1 hybrid, M79, and its parental lines E1 and H1 to drought stress. Subsequent physiological analysis demonstrated that M79 showed higher photosynthetic energy conversion efficiency and drought tolerance than its parents. A transcriptomic study using leaves collected six days after drought treatment, when the soil water content was about ∼20%, identified 3066, 1895, and 2148 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in M79, E1 and H1 compared to the respective untreated controls, respectively. Further analysis revealed 17 Gene Ontology (GO) enrichments and 14 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways in M79, including photosystem II (PSII) oxygen-evolving complex, peroxidase (POD) activity, plant hormone signal transduction, and chlorophyll biosynthesis. Co-regulation analysis suggested that these DEGs in M79 contributed to the formation of a regulatory network involving multiple biological processes and pathways including photosynthesis, signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, redox regulation, hormonal signaling, and osmotic regulation. RNA-seq analysis also showed that some photosynthesis-related DEGs were highly expressed in M79 compared to its parental lines under drought stress. These results indicate that various molecular pathways, including photosynthesis, respond to drought stress in M79, and provide abundant molecular information for further analysis of the underlying mechanism responding to this stress.

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Comparative analysis of combined phosphorus and drought stress-responses in two winter wheat

10.21203/rs.3.rs-45684/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Xiangchi Zhang ◽

Weidan Lu ◽

Xiaoli Wang ◽

Bin Ma ◽

Kaiyong Fu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Winter Wheat ◽

Differentially Expressed Genes ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Differentially Expressed ◽

Phosphorus Level ◽

Root Tips ◽

Percentage Content ◽

Low Phosphorus

Abstract Phosphorus stress and drought stress are common abiotic stresses. In this study, two winter wheat “Xindong20” and “Xindong23” were solution cultured and then treated with drought stress under conventional phosphorus level (CP: 1.0 mmol/L) and low phosphorus level (LP: 0.05 mmol /L), respectively. The results showed that with the increase of drought stress, the LP application was more conducive to the growth of root tips, length, forks, surfarea and root vitality of wheat. Under the LP treatment, the total phosphorus content of root at rewatered 3d was increased by 94.2% in Xindong20 wheat and decreased by 48.9% in Xindong23 wheat, compared with their respective samples at drought 0d. The LP treatment increased the percentage content of K and decreased the P and Ca percentage content. However, under CP treatment, the percentage content of Zn after rewatered 3 days were increased, compared with drought 7d. Based on the GeneChip analysis of root samples from drought 7d, the microarray results showed that 4577 and 202 differentially expressed genes were detected from Xindong20 and Xindong23, respectively. Among them, 89.9% of differentially expressed genes were involved in organelles and vesicles in Xindong20, and 69.8% were involved in genes encoding root anatomical structure, respiratory chain, electron transport chain, ion transport and enzyme activity in Xindong23. Therefore, the supply of low phosphorus has more effects on the drought tolerance of wheat, and the wheat with different drought tolerance has different regulatory genes. The higher drought-tolerant wheat has more genes up-regulation in response to drought stress.

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Physiological and Proteomic Analysis Revealed the Response Mechanisms of two Different Grought-resistant Maize Varieties

10.21203/rs.3.rs-630007/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hongjie Li ◽

Mei Yang ◽

Chengfeng Zhao ◽

Yifan Wang ◽

Renhe Zhang

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Molecular Chaperones ◽

Electron Flow ◽

Photochemical Efficiency ◽

Growth And Yield ◽

Protective Mechanism ◽

Drought Tolerant ◽

Maize Varieties

Abstract Background: Drought stress seriously limits the seedling growth and yield of maize. Despite previous studies on drought resistance mechanisms by which maize cope with water deficient, the link between physiological and molecular variations are largely unknown. To reveal the complex regulatory mechanisms, comparative physiology and proteomic analyses were conducted to investigate the stress responses of two maize cultivars with contrasting tolerance to drought stress. Results: Physiological results showed that SD609 (drought-tolerant) maintains higher photochemical efficiency by enhancing CEF (cyclic electron flow) protective mechanism and antioxidative enzymes activities. Proteomics analysis revealed a total of 198 and 102 proteins were differentially expressed in SD609 and SD902, respectively. Further enrichment analysis indicated that drought-tolerant ‘SD609’ increased the expression of proteins related to photosynthesis, antioxidants/detoxifying enzymes, molecular chaperones and metabolic enzymes. The up-regulation proteins related to PSII repair and photoprotection mechanisms resulted in more efficient photochemical capacity in tolerant variety under moderate drought. However, the drought-sensitive ‘SD902’ only induced molecular chaperones and sucrose synthesis pathways, and failed to protect the impaired photosystem. Further analysis indicated that proteins related to the electron transport chain, redox homeostasis and heat shock proteins (HSPs) could be important in protecting plants from drought stress. Conclusions: Our experiments explored the mechanism of drought tolerance, and obtained detailed information about the interconnection of physiological research and protein research. In summary, our findings could provide new clues into further understanding of drought tolerance mechanisms in maize.

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Metabolic Responses of Two Contrasting Lentil Genotypes to PEG-Induced Drought Stress

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11061190 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1190

Author(s):

Chrysanthi Foti ◽

Ioannis F. Kalampokis ◽

Konstantinos A. Aliferis ◽

Ourania I. Pavli

Keyword(s):

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Metabolic Response ◽

Early Growth ◽

Metabolic Responses ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Growth Stages ◽

Wide Range ◽

Research Findings ◽

Post Transcriptional Regulation

Among abiotic stresses, drought is undoubtedly one of the most severe environmental factors for a wide range of major crops, leading to considerable yield and economic losses. The adverse effects in crop yield reflect the result of a series of morphological and physiological changes but also changes in signaling pathways, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of stress-responsive genes, and metabolic adaptations. Despite the exhausting studies elucidating plants’ metabolic response to drought, there is a knowledge gap in the biochemical mechanisms governing drought tolerance in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.). The present study aimed to determine the fluctuations of the metabolite profiles of lentil genotypes with contrasting drought tolerance to discover possible biomarkers for screening tolerant genotypes at early growth stages. Lentil seedlings were subjected to osmotic drought stress, induced by polyethylene glycol, at two stress levels (2.5% and 5.0% PEG-6000) for a period of 20 days, while untreated plants were also included as controls. GC/ΕΙ/MS-mediated metabolic profiling was employed to monitor changes in response to osmotic drought stress. The data was subjected to OPLS-DA and OPLS-HCA for the discrimination between treatments and the discovery of trends and corresponding biomarkers. In total, the analysis yielded 150 metabolite features with highly reproducible patterns, of which the vast majority belonged to carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, and amino acids. Overall, findings highlight the differential accumulation of a series of compounds, and more importantly, the variable accumulation of certain metabolites, namely D-fructose, α,α-trehalose, myo-inositol, and L-tryptophan, in the contrasting genotypes, indicating that the adaptive metabolic responses to osmotic drought stress operate under strong genotypic dependency in lentil. Research findings provide insights into various aspects of lentil’s metabolism under drought and further offer the possibility of applying such knowledge towards effectively screening for drought-tolerant lentil germplasm at early growth stages.

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Physiological and Differential Proteomic Analyses of Imitation Drought Stress Response in Sorghum bicolor Root at the Seedling Stage

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms21239174 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (23) ◽

pp. 9174

Author(s):

Hongbing Li ◽

Yulin Li ◽

Qingbo Ke ◽

Sang-Soo Kwak ◽

Suiqi Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Protein Synthesis ◽

Drought Stress ◽

Drought Tolerance ◽

Sorghum Bicolor ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Expression Patterns ◽

Physiological Mechanism ◽

Seedling Stage ◽

Ros Scavenging ◽

Root Response

Drought is one of the most important constraints on the growth and productivity of many crops, including sorghum. However, as a primary sensing organ, the plant root response to drought has not been well documented at the proteomic level. In the present study, we compared physiological alteration and differential accumulation of proteins in the roots of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) inbred line BT×623 response to Polyethylene Glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress at the seedling stage. Drought stress (up to 24 h after PEG treatment) resulted in increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and subsequent lipid peroxidation. The proline content was increased in drought-stressed plants. The physiological mechanism of sorghum root response to drought was attributed to the elimination of harmful free radicals and to the alleviation of oxidative stress via the synergistic action of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and polyphenol oxidase. The high-resolution proteome map demonstrated significant variations in about 65 protein spots detected on Coomassie Brilliant Blue-stained 2-DE gels. Of these, 52 protein spots were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-TOF MS) representing 49 unique proteins; the levels of 43 protein spots were increased, and 22 were decreased under drought condition. The proteins identified in this study are involved in a variety of cellular functions, including carbohydrate and energy metabolism, antioxidant and defense response, protein synthesis/processing/degradation, transcriptional regulation, amino acid biosynthesis, and nitrogen metabolism, which contribute jointly to the molecular mechanism of outstanding drought tolerance in sorghum plants. Analysis of protein expression patterns and physiological analysis revealed that proteins associated with changes in energy usage; osmotic adjustment; ROS scavenging; and protein synthesis, processing, and proteolysis play important roles in maintaining root growth under drought stress. This study provides new insight for better understanding of the molecular basis of drought stress responses, aiming to improve plant drought tolerance for enhanced yield.

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