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The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants
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The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Physiology and Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2023) | Viewed by 19693

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Dayong Zhang

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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory for Crop Genetics & Germplasm Enhancement and Utilization, Cotton Germplasm Innovation and Application Engineering Center (the Ministry of Education), College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: drought and salt stress; molecular mechanism of abiotic stress; m6a modification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Zhiyong Ni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Life Sciences, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
Interests: drought and salt stress; molecular mechanism of abiotic stress; plant non-coding RNA
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Wenfeng Nie

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Horticulture, College of Horticulture and Plant Protection, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
Interests: DNA demethylation; abiotic stress; fruit ripening; fruit quality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to their sessile nature, plants are often subjected to various stresses. These stresses affect the normal growth of plants to varying degrees. For example, drought often causes plants to grow short, strong winds that cause plant stems to break, floods cause plants to log and wilt, and so on. Environmental changes are complicated processes caused by both internal and external factors, in which changes to plant-growing environments largely affect the growth and development of plants and even reduce or destroy the yield of crops in agricultural production. Moreover, trade-offs between growth and development and stress in plants and their interaction with intensive agricultural management constrain human food security at the global scale. However, how plants balance growth and development and stress is still a relatively less understood. Therefore, to gain deeper insight into the stress response mechanism of plants, it is meaningful to unravel the perception and transmission links of plants in response to stress stimulations.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the recent advances in our understanding of the trade-offs between growth and development and stress in plants, with a main focus on physiological, cellular, and biochemical effects, as well as on underlying genetic determination and molecular control (e.g., stress signaling, pathway activation, tolerance/resistance mechanisms). Meanwhile, studies on the mechanisms and functions of epigenetic modifications, gene editing techniques, and accumulation-enhanced adaptation to balance growth and abiotic stress tolerance are also warmly welcomed.

Dr. Dayong Zhang
Dr. Zhiyong Ni
Dr. Wenfeng Nie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biotic and abiotic stresses
  • epigenetic modifications
  • stress tolerance
  • growth and development
  • stress signaling
  • molecular mechanism

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 6169 KiB  
Article
Identification and Expression Analysis of the Alfin-like Gene Family in Tomato and the Role of SlAL3 in Salt and Drought Stresses
by Ruixin Jin, Juan Wang, Bin Guo, Tao Yang, Jiahui Hu, Baike Wang and Qinghui Yu
Plants 2023, 12(15), 2829; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12152829 - 31 Jul 2023
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1761
Abstract
Alfin-like (AL) transcription factors are a family of plant-specific genes with a PHD-finger-like structural domain at the C-terminus and a DUF3594 structural domain at the N-terminus that play important roles in plant development and stress response. In the present study, genome-wide identification and [...] Read more.
Alfin-like (AL) transcription factors are a family of plant-specific genes with a PHD-finger-like structural domain at the C-terminus and a DUF3594 structural domain at the N-terminus that play important roles in plant development and stress response. In the present study, genome-wide identification and analysis were performed of the AL protein family in cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and three wild relatives (S. pennellii, S. pimpinellifolium, and S. lycopersicoides) to evaluate their response to different abiotic stresses. A total of 39 ALs were identified and classified into four groups and based on phylogenetic tree and evolutionary analysis were shown to have formed prior to the differentiation of monocotyledons and dicots. Moreover, cis-acting element analysis revealed that various phytohormone response and abiotic stress response elements were highly existed in tomato. In addition, further analysis of the SlAL3 gene revealed that its expression was induced by drought and salt stresses and localized to the nucleus. In conclusion, our findings concerning AL genes provide useful information for further studies on their functions and regulatory mechanisms and provide theoretical references for studying AL gene response to abiotic stresses in plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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14 pages, 7621 KiB  
Article
Identification of the Regulatory Role of SlWRKYs in Tomato Defense against Meloidogyne incognita
by Weidan Nie, Lili Liu, Yinxia Chen, Mingyin Luo, Chenghao Feng, Chaonan Wang, Zhongmin Yang and Chong Du
Plants 2023, 12(13), 2416; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12132416 - 22 Jun 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1680
Abstract
Root-knot nematode (RKN) infections are among the most serious soil-borne diseases in the world, and tomato is a common host of RKNs. WRKY transcription factors are involved in complex, diverse biological processes in plants. In a previous study, a resistant variety, LA3858 ( [...] Read more.
Root-knot nematode (RKN) infections are among the most serious soil-borne diseases in the world, and tomato is a common host of RKNs. WRKY transcription factors are involved in complex, diverse biological processes in plants. In a previous study, a resistant variety, LA3858 (Mi-3/Mi-3), was treated at different soil temperatures before RNA-seq, and six differentially expressed genes (DEGs) encoding WRKY proteins were screened. In this study, cloning and sequencing were used to identify six target DEGs encoding SlWRKY1, SlWRKY13, SlWRKY30, SlWRKY41, SlWRKY46, and SlWRKY80. Conserved domain identification and phylogenetic tree analysis showed that SlWRKY1, SlWRKY13, and SlWRKY46 have similar functions and are mainly involved in plant growth and development and abiotic stress responses. SlWRKY30 and SlWRKY41 share high homology, while AtWRKY46 and AtWRKY70, which are highly homologous to SlWRKY80, play an important role in the disease resistance of A. thaliana. Considering these findings combined with the high level of SlWRKY80 expression observed in the roots and leaves of the resistant variety Motelle (Mi-1/Mi-1) and the continuous upregulation of SlWRKY80 expression in the roots after inoculation of Motelle with M. incognita, it is speculated that SlWRKY80 plays an important role in the Mi-1-mediated disease resistance pathway. Further study revealed that SlWRKY80 is a typical nuclear-localized protein, and a virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) assay verified that SlWRKY80 is involved in tomato resistance to RKNs as a positive regulator. SA and JA signals play an important role in Mi-1-mediated resistance to RKNs. SlWRKY80 was able to respond rapidly to treatment with both plant hormones, which indicated that SlWRKY80 might be involved in disease resistance regulation through various immune pathways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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12 pages, 2248 KiB  
Article
The Shift in Key Functional Traits Caused by Precipitation under Nitrogen and Phosphorus Deposition Drives Biomass Change in Leymus chinensis
by Ruqiang Tong, Xinran Yang, Qiuyue Wang, Lin Li, Yanan Li, Yujie Shi, Chunsheng Mu and Junfeng Wang
Plants 2023, 12(9), 1781; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12091781 - 26 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1217
Abstract
The trade-offs between key functional traits in plants have a decisive impact on biomass production. However, how precipitation and nutrient deposition affect the trade-offs in traits and, ultimately, productivity is still unclear. In the present study, a mesocosm experiment was conducted to explore [...] Read more.
The trade-offs between key functional traits in plants have a decisive impact on biomass production. However, how precipitation and nutrient deposition affect the trade-offs in traits and, ultimately, productivity is still unclear. In the present study, a mesocosm experiment was conducted to explore the relationships between biomass production and the aboveground and belowground key functional traits and their trade-offs under changes in precipitation and nutrient depositions in Leymus chinensis, a monodominant perennial rhizome grass widespread in the eastern Eurasian steppe. Our results showed that moisture is the key factor regulating the effect of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) deposition on increased biomass production. Under conditions of average precipitation, water use efficiency (WUE) was the key trait determining the biomass of L. chinensis. There were obvious trade-offs between WUE and leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf thickness, and leaf dry matter. Conversely, under increasing precipitation, the effect of restricted soil water on leaf traits was relieved; the key limiting trait changed from WUE to plant height. These findings indicate that the shift of fundamental traits of photosynthetic carbon gain induced by precipitation under N and P deposition is the key ecological driving mechanism for the biomass production of typical dominant species in semi-arid grassland. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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12 pages, 2510 KiB  
Article
Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Panicle Heterosis in an Elite Hybrid Rice ZZY10 and Its Parental Lines
by Zhengzheng Zhong, Yawen Wu, Peng Zhang, Guocheng Hu, Dong Fu, Guoping Yu and Hanhua Tong
Plants 2023, 12(6), 1309; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12061309 - 14 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1477
Abstract
Heterosis is the phenomenon in which some hybrid traits are superior to those of their parents. Most studies have analyzed the heterosis of agronomic traits of crops; however, heterosis of the panicles can improve yield and is important for crop breeding. Therefore, a [...] Read more.
Heterosis is the phenomenon in which some hybrid traits are superior to those of their parents. Most studies have analyzed the heterosis of agronomic traits of crops; however, heterosis of the panicles can improve yield and is important for crop breeding. Therefore, a systematic study of panicle heterosis is needed, especially during the reproductive stage. RNA sequencing (RNA Seq) and transcriptome analysis are suitable for further study of heterosis. Using the Illumina Nova Seq platform, the transcriptome of ZhongZheYou 10 (ZZY10), an elite rice hybrid, the maintainer line ZhongZhe B (ZZB), and the restorer line Z7-10 were analyzed at the heading date in Hangzhou, 2022. 581 million high-quality short reads were obtained by sequencing and were aligned against the Nipponbare reference genome. A total of 9000 differential expression genes were found between the hybrids and their parents (DGHP). Of the DGHP, 60.71% were up-regulated and 39.29% were down-regulated in the hybrid. Comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that 5235 and 3765 DGHP were between ZZY10 and ZhongZhe B and between ZZY10 and Z7-10, respectively. This result is consistent with the transcriptome profile of ZZY10 and was similar to Z7-10. The expression patterns of DGHP mainly exhibited over-dominance, under-dominance, and additivity. Among the DGHP-involved GO terms, pathways such as photosynthesis, DNA integration, cell wall modification, thylakoid, and photosystem were significant. 21 DGHP, which were involved in photosynthesis, and 17 random DGHP were selected for qRT-PCR validation. The up-regulated PsbQ and down-regulated subunits of PSI and PSII and photosynthetic electron transport in the photosynthesis pathway were observed in our study. Extensive transcriptome data were obtained by RNA-Seq, providing a comprehensive overview of panicle transcriptomes at the heading stage in a heterotic hybrid. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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19 pages, 7314 KiB  
Article
Genome-Wide Identification and Evolutionary Analysis of Gossypium YTH Domain-Containing RNA-Binding Protein Family and the Role of GhYTH8 in Response to Drought Stress
by Wei Hao, Weipeng Wang, Xiangfen Xiao, Jialiang Sun, Bingjie Wu, Yuping Zhao, Shuaishuai Pei, Wenjia Fan, Dongbei Xu and Tengfei Qin
Plants 2023, 12(5), 1198; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051198 - 6 Mar 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2053
Abstract
YTH domain-containing proteins are one kind of RNA-binding protein involved in post-transcriptional regulation and play multiple roles in regulating the growth, development, and abiotic stress responses of plants. However, the YTH domain-containing RNA-binding protein family has not been previously studied in cotton. In [...] Read more.
YTH domain-containing proteins are one kind of RNA-binding protein involved in post-transcriptional regulation and play multiple roles in regulating the growth, development, and abiotic stress responses of plants. However, the YTH domain-containing RNA-binding protein family has not been previously studied in cotton. In this study, a total of 10, 11, 22, and 21 YTH genes were identified in Gossypium arboreum, Gossypium raimondii, Gossypium barbadense, and Gossypium hirsutum, respectively. These Gossypium YTH genes were categorized into three subgroups by phylogenetic analysis. The chromosomal distribution, synteny analysis, structures of Gossypium YTH genes, and the motifs of YTH proteins were analyzed. Furthermore, the cis-element of GhYTH genes promoter, miRNA targets of GhYTH genes, and subcellular localization of GhYTH8 and GhYTH16 were characterized. Expression patterns of GhYTH genes in different tissues, organs, and in response to different stresses were also analyzed. Moreover, functional verifications revealed that silencing GhYTH8 attenuated the drought tolerance in the upland cotton TM-1 line. These findings provide useful clues for the functional and evolutionary analysis of YTH genes in cotton. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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19 pages, 6666 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Profiling of Gossypium anomalum Seedlings Reveals Key Regulators and Metabolic Pathways in Response to Drought Stress
by Wei Ji, Huan Yu, Yixin Shangguan, Jing Cao, Xianglong Chen, Liang Zhao, Qi Guo, Peng Xu, Xinlian Shen and Zhenzhen Xu
Plants 2023, 12(2), 312; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12020312 - 9 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2133
Abstract
Drought stress is a key limiting factor for cotton (Gossypium spp.) growth, production, development, and production worldwide. Some wild diploid cotton species are remarkably tolerant of water deficit and constitute an important reservoir for understanding the molecular mechanisms of Gossypium spp. drought [...] Read more.
Drought stress is a key limiting factor for cotton (Gossypium spp.) growth, production, development, and production worldwide. Some wild diploid cotton species are remarkably tolerant of water deficit and constitute an important reservoir for understanding the molecular mechanisms of Gossypium spp. drought tolerance and improving cultivated upland cotton. Here, we utilized RNA-Seq technology to characterize the leaf transcriptomes of a wild African diploid cotton species, Gossypium anomalum, under drought stress. A total of 12,322 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified after mapping valid clean reads to the reference genome of G. anomalum, of which 1243 were commonly differentially expressed at all stages of drought stress. These genes were significantly enriched for molecular functions Gene Ontology terms related to cytoskeleton, hydrolase activity, cellular redox, and binding. Additionally, a substantial proportion of enriched biological process terms concerned cell or subcellular processes, while most in the cellular components category concerned membrane function and photosynthesis. An enrichment analysis against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes showed the top significantly enriched pathways to be photosynthesis-antenna proteins, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, MAPK signaling pathway, glutathione metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction. The DEGs also exhibited interestingly significant enrichments for drought stress-induced tandemly repeated genes involved in iron ion binding, oxidoreductase activity, heme binding, and other biological processes. A large number of genes encoding transcription factors, such as MYB, bHLH, ERF, NAC, WRKY, and bZIP, were identified as playing key roles in acclimatizing to drought stress. These results will provide deeper insights into the molecular mechanisms of drought stress adaptation in Gossypium spp. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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18 pages, 4707 KiB  
Article
Identification of Peanut AhMYB44 Transcription Factors and Their Multiple Roles in Drought Stress Responses
by Yonghui Liu, Yue Shen, Man Liang, Xuyao Zhang, Jianwen Xu, Yi Shen and Zhide Chen
Plants 2022, 11(24), 3522; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11243522 - 14 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1810
Abstract
MYB transcription factors (TFs) comprise a large gene family that plays an important role in plant growth, development, stress responses, and defense regulation. However, their functions in peanut remain to be further elucidated. Here, we identified six AhMYB44 genes (AhMYB44-01/11, AhMYB44-05/15 [...] Read more.
MYB transcription factors (TFs) comprise a large gene family that plays an important role in plant growth, development, stress responses, and defense regulation. However, their functions in peanut remain to be further elucidated. Here, we identified six AhMYB44 genes (AhMYB44-01/11, AhMYB44-05/15, and AhMYB44-06/16) in cultivated peanut. They are typical R2R3-MYB TFs and have many similarities but different expression patterns in response to drought stress, suggesting different functions under drought stress. Homologous genes with higher expression in each pair were selected for further study. All of them were nuclear proteins and had no self-transactivation activity. In addition, we compared the performances of different lines at germination, seedling, and adult stages under drought stress. After drought treatment, the overexpression of AhMYB44-11 transgenic plants resulted in the longest root length at the seedling stage. Levels of proline, soluble sugar and chlorophyll, and expression levels of stress-related genes, including P5CS1, RD29A, CBF1, and COR15A, were higher than those of the wild type (WT) at the adult stage. While the overexpression of AhMYB44-16 significantly increased the drought sensitivity of plants at all stages, with differential ABA content, the expression levels of the ABA-related genes PP2CA and ABI1 were significantly upregulated and those of ABA1 and ABA2 were significantly downregulated compared with the WT. AhMYB44-05 showed similar downregulated expression as AhMYB44-16 under drought stress, but its overexpression in Arabidopsis did not significantly affect the drought resistance of transgenic plants. Based on the results, we propose that AhMYB44-11 plays a role as a positive factor in drought tolerance by increasing the transcription abundance of stress-related genes and the accumulation of osmolytes, while AhMYB44-16 negatively regulates drought tolerance through its involvement in ABA-dependent stress response pathways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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15 pages, 2527 KiB  
Article
Trihelix Transcriptional Factor GhGT26 of Cotton Enhances Salinity Tolerance in Arabidopsis
by Yue Li, Ziyao Hu, Yongmei Dong and Zongming Xie
Plants 2022, 11(20), 2694; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11202694 - 12 Oct 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1763
Abstract
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), the most important textile crop worldwide, often encounters abiotic stress during its growing season and its productivity is significantly limited by adverse factors. Trihelix transcription factors (also known as GT factors) are important proteins involved in the morphological [...] Read more.
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), the most important textile crop worldwide, often encounters abiotic stress during its growing season and its productivity is significantly limited by adverse factors. Trihelix transcription factors (also known as GT factors) are important proteins involved in the morphological development and responses to abiotic stress in plants. However, their functions and molecular mechanisms in the cotton toward abiotic stress response remain unclear. In this study, a member (GhGT26) of the cotton Trihelix family was functionally characterized in the model plant Arabidopsis. This protein containing a SANT domain belongs to the GT-1 subgroup of trihelix proteins. GhGT26 was widely expressed in tissues (with the highest level in flower) and responded to high salt and ABA treatments at the transcriptional level. Using the Arabidopsis protoplast assay system, we found that the GhGT26 protein was located in the cell nuclei. The EMSA assay revealed that the GhGT26 protein could bind to the Site1-type GT cis elements (GT-3a) and MYB elements MRE3 and MRE4. The overexpression of GhGT26 improved plant tolerance to salt stress in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Although ABA inhibits root elongation, the statistical analysis revealed that the root lengths of GhGT26-overexpressing Arabidopsis were the same as the wild plants after ABA treatment. Our results demonstrate that GhGT26 positively regulates salt stress via ABA-independent pathways. This evidence suggests that the GhGT26 may participate in the regulation of stress tolerance in cotton. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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14 pages, 3336 KiB  
Article
Membrane Localized GbTMEM214s Participate in Modulating Cotton Resistance to Verticillium Wilt
by Jun Zhao, Jianwen Xu, Yueping Wang, Jianguang Liu, Chengguang Dong, Liang Zhao, Nijiang Ai, Zhenzhen Xu, Qi Guo, Guoli Feng, Peng Xu, Junling Cheng, Xin Wang, Juan Wang and Songhua Xiao
Plants 2022, 11(18), 2342; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11182342 - 8 Sep 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1776
Abstract
Verticillium wilt (VW) is a soil-borne fungal disease caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb, which leads to serious damage to cotton production annually in the world. In our previous study, a transmembrane protein 214 protein (TMEM214) gene associated with VW resistance was [...] Read more.
Verticillium wilt (VW) is a soil-borne fungal disease caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb, which leads to serious damage to cotton production annually in the world. In our previous study, a transmembrane protein 214 protein (TMEM214) gene associated with VW resistance was map-based cloned from Gossypium barbadense (G. barbadense). TMEM214 proteins are a kind of transmembrane protein, but their function in plants is rarely studied. To reveal the function of TMEM214s in VW resistance, all six TMEM214s were cloned from G. barbadense in this study. These genes were named as GbTMEM214-1_A/D, GbTMEM214-4_A/D and GbTMEM214-7_A/D, according to their location on the chromosomes. The encoded proteins are all located on the cell membrane. TMEM214 genes were all induced with Verticillium dahliae inoculation and showed significant differences between resistant and susceptible varieties, but the expression patterns of GbTMEM214s under different hormone treatments were significantly different. Virus-induced gene silencing analysis showed the resistance to VW of GbTMEM214s-silenced lines decreased significantly, which further proves the important role of GbTMEM214s in the resistance to Verticillium dahliae. Our study provides an insight into the involvement of GbTMEM214s in VW resistance, which was helpful to better understand the disease-resistance mechanism of plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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16 pages, 3613 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Analysis of Eggplant under Salt Stress: AP2/ERF Transcription Factor SmERF1 Acts as a Positive Regulator of Salt Stress
by Lei Shen, Enpeng Zhao, Ruie Liu and Xu Yang
Plants 2022, 11(17), 2205; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11172205 - 25 Aug 2022
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2481
Abstract
Salt stress, a type of abiotic stress, impedes plant growth and development and strongly reduces crop yield. The molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to salt stress remain largely unclear. To characterize the enriched pathways and genes that were affected during salt treatment, we [...] Read more.
Salt stress, a type of abiotic stress, impedes plant growth and development and strongly reduces crop yield. The molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to salt stress remain largely unclear. To characterize the enriched pathways and genes that were affected during salt treatment, we performed mRNA sequencing (mRNA-seq) in eggplant roots and identified 8509 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the mock and 24 h under salt stress. Among these DEGs, we found that the AP2/ERF transcription factor family member SmERF1 belongs to the plant–pathogen interaction pathway, which was significantly upregulated by salt stress. We found that SmERF1 localizes in the nuclei with transcriptional activity. The results of the virus-induced gene silencing assay showed that SmERF1 silencing markedly enhanced the susceptibility of plants to salt stress, significantly downregulated the transcript expression levels of salt stress defense-related marker genes (9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase [SmNCED1, SmNCED2], Dehydrin [SmDHN1], and Dehydrin (SmDHNX1), and reduced the activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase. Silencing SmERF1 promoted the generation of H2O2 and proline. In addition, the transient overexpression of SmERF1 triggered intense cell death in eggplant leaves, as assessed by the darker diaminobenzidine and trypan blue staining. These findings suggest that SmERF1 acts as a positive regulator of eggplant response to salt stress. Hence, our results suggest that AP2/ERF transcription factors play a vital role in the response to salt stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Trade-Offs between Growth and Development and Stress in Plants)
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