scholarly journals Overexpression of the Zygophyllum xanthoxylum Aquaporin, ZxPIP1;3, Promotes Plant Growth and Stress Tolerance

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 2112
Author(s):  
Mengzhan Li ◽  
Mingfa Li ◽  
Dingding Li ◽  
Suo-Min Wang ◽  
Hongju Yin

Drought and salinity can result in cell dehydration and water unbalance in plants, which seriously diminish plant growth and development. Cellular water homeostasis maintained by aquaporin is one of the important strategies for plants to cope with these two stresses. In this study, a stress-induced aquaporin, ZxPIP1;3, belonging to the PIP1 subgroup, was identified from the succulent xerophyte Zygophyllum xanthoxylum. The subcellular localization showed that ZxPIP1;3-GFP was located in the plasma membrane. The overexpression of ZxPIP1;3 in Arabidopsis prompted plant growth under favorable condition. In addition, it also conferred salt and drought tolerance with better water status as well as less ion toxicity and membrane injury, which led to more efficient photosynthesis and improved growth vigor via inducing stress-related responsive genes. This study reveals the molecular mechanisms of xerophytes’ stress tolerance and provides a valuable candidate that could be used in genetic engineering to improve crop growth and stress tolerance.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (20) ◽  
pp. 11274
Author(s):  
Xiulan Li ◽  
Mengdi Sun ◽  
Shijuan Liu ◽  
Qian Teng ◽  
Shihui Li ◽  
...  

Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins form a large protein family in land plants, with hundreds of different members in angiosperms. In the last decade, a number of studies have shown that PPR proteins are sequence-specific RNA-binding proteins involved in multiple aspects of plant organellar RNA processing, and perform numerous functions in plants throughout their life cycle. Recently, computational and structural studies have provided new insights into the working mechanisms of PPR proteins in RNA recognition and cytidine deamination. In this review, we summarized the research progress on the functions of PPR proteins in plant growth and development, with a particular focus on their effects on cytoplasmic male sterility, stress responses, and seed development. We also documented the molecular mechanisms of PPR proteins in mediating RNA processing in plant mitochondria and chloroplasts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 675-685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Batoko ◽  
Yasin Dagdas ◽  
Frantisek Baluska ◽  
Agnieszka Sirko

Autophagy is an essential catabolic pathway and is activated by various endogenous and exogenous stimuli. In particular, autophagy is required to allow sessile organisms such as plants to cope with biotic or abiotic stress conditions. It is thought that these various environmental signaling pathways are somehow integrated with autophagy signaling. However, the molecular mechanisms of plant autophagy signaling are not well understood, leaving a big gap of knowledge as a barrier to being able to manipulate this important pathway to improve plant growth and development. In this review, we discuss possible regulatory mechanisms at the core of plant autophagy signaling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geupil Jang ◽  
Youngdae Yoon ◽  
Yang Do Choi

To date, extensive studies have identified many classes of hormones in plants and revealed the specific, nonredundant signaling pathways for each hormone. However, plant hormone functions largely overlap in many aspects of plant development and environmental responses, suggesting that studying the crosstalk among plant hormones is key to understanding hormonal responses in plants. The phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA) is deeply involved in the regulation of plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In addition, a growing number of studies suggest that JA plays an essential role in the modulation of plant growth and development under stress conditions, and crosstalk between JA and other phytohormones involved in growth and development, such as gibberellic acid (GA), cytokinin, and auxin modulate various developmental processes. This review summarizes recent findings of JA crosstalk in the modulation of plant growth and development, focusing on JA–GA, JA–cytokinin, and JA–auxin crosstalk. The molecular mechanisms underlying this crosstalk are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Rafaqat Ali Gill ◽  
Sunny Ahmar ◽  
Basharat Ali ◽  
Muhammad Hamzah Saleem ◽  
Muhammad Umar Khan ◽  
...  

Membrane transporters (MTs) are mainly localized at the plasma membrane (PM), tonoplast and vacuolar membrane (VM) of cells in all plant organs. Their work is to maintain the cellular homeostasis by controlling ionic movements across PM channels from roots to upper plant parts, xylem loading and remobilization of sugar molecules from photosynthesis tissues in the leaf (source) to roots, stem and seeds (sink) via phloem loading. The plant’s whole source-to-sink relationship is regulated by multiple transporting proteins in a highly sophisticated manner and driven based on different stages of plant growth and development (PG&D), and environmental changes. The MTs play a pivotal role in PG&D in terms of increased plant height, branches/tiller numbers, enhanced numbers, length and filled panicles per plant, seed yield and grain quality. Dynamic climatic changes disturbed the ionic balance (salt, drought and heavy metals) and sugar supply (cold and heat stress). Due to poor selectivity, some of the MTs also uptake toxic elements in the roots that negatively impact on PG&D, later on also exported to upper parts and then deteriorate the grain quality. As an adaptive strategy, in response to salt and HMs plants activated PM and VM localized MTs that export toxic elements into vacuole, and also translocate in the root’s tips and shoot. However, in case of drought, cold and heat stresses, MTs increased the water and sugar supply to all organs. In this review, we mainly reviewed recent literature from Arabidopsis, halophytes, and major field crops such as rice, wheat, maize and oilseed rape to argue on the global role of MTs in PG&D and abiotic stress tolerance. We also discussed the gene expression level changes and genomic variations within a species as well as within a family in response to developmental and environmental cues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Khalid ◽  
Saeed-ur- Rahman ◽  
Danfeng Huang

Abstract The beneficial endophytic microorganisms have received significant attention in agriculture because of their exceptional capabilities to facilitate functions like nutrient enrichment, water status, and stress tolerance (biotic and abiotic). This review signifies the molecular mechanisms to better understand the Piriformospora indica-mediated plants improvement or protection for sustainable agriculture. P. indica, an endophytic fungus, belonging to the order Sebacinales (Basidiomycota), is versatile in building mutualistic associations with a variety of plants including pteridophytes, bryophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. P. indica has enormous potential to manipulate the hormonal pathway such as the production of indole-3-acetic acid which in turn increases root proliferation and subsequently improves plant nutrient acquisition. P. indica also enhances components of the antioxidant system and expression of stress-related genes which induce plant stress tolerance under adverse environmental conditions. P. indica has tremendous potential for crop improvement because of its multi-dimensional functions such as plant growth promotion, immunomodulatory effect, biofertilizer, obviates biotic (pathogens) and abiotic (metal toxicity, water stress, soil structure, salt, and pH) stresses, phytoremediator, and bio-herbicide. Considering the above points, herein, we reviewed the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying P. indica-mediated plants improvement or protection under diverse agricultural environment. The first part of the review focuses on the symbiotic association of P. indica with special reference to biotic and abiotic stress tolerance and host plant root colonization mechanisms, respectively. Emphasis is given to the expression level of essential genes involved in the processes that induce changes at the cellular level. The last half emphasizes critical aspects related to the seed germination, plant yield, and nutrients acquisition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41
Author(s):  
Aleksandra V. Dolgikh ◽  
Elena A. Dolgikh

The regulators of the gibberellin response, the DELLA proteins, are universal participants of signaling pathways that coordinate the processes of plant growth and development. This regulation is provided by the integration of external effect, as well as internal signals, such as a level of phytohormones and secondary messengers. Since DELLA proteins are extremely sensitive to increasing or decreasing of the gibberellic acid (GA) endogenous level, their direct interaction with transcription factors modulates the activity of the latter, and, consequently, the level of expression of target genes in response to external signals causing changes in the level of GA. However, the molecular mechanisms of the effect of DELLA proteins on the development of symbiosis remain poorly understood. The review analyzes classical and modern data on the functioning of DELLA proteins in plants.


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