Overexpression of Sorghum WINL1 gene confers drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana through the regulation of cuticular biosynthesis

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• 作者：Shu-Guang Bao ; Jian-Xin Shi ; Feng Luo…
• 关键词：Sorghum ; SbWINL1 ; Cutin ; Wax ; Biosynthetic pathway ; Arabidopsis
• 刊名：Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：128
• 期：2
• 页码：347-356
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Biomedical and Life Sciences
• 刊物主题：Plant Sciences; Plant Physiology; Plant Genetics & Genomics; Plant Pathology;
• 出版者：Springer Netherlands
• ISSN：1573-5044
• 卷排序：128

文摘

Plant cuticle plays a significant role in responses to various environmental stresses. Transcription factors were shown to regulate cuticular biosynthesis in many plants. However, no transcription factor genes involved in this biological process have been identified in wax- and cutin-rich sorghum so far. Here we clone and characterize a sorghum gene encoding an ethylene response factor (ERF) transcription factor. It consists of 204 amino acids and holds typically conserved ‘mm’, ‘cm’ and AP2 domains of WIN protein family with higher similarity to its orthologues in monocot plants. We designated this gene as sorghum WIN1-Like 1 gene (SbWINL1). Our study showed that SbWINL1 gene was highly expressed in leaf, stem, seedling and sheath, compared to root and spikelet. Notably, rosette leaves of SbWINL1-overexpressed Arabidopsis (SbWINL1-OE) were more enriched in wax crystals and shinier than those of wild-type plants. Further biochemical analysis indicated that SbWINL1-OE leaves showed 2- or 2.6-fold higher levels of total wax content or total cutin than counterparts from wild-type leaves. The drought tolerance of SbWINL1-OE plants was enhanced substantially compared with wild-type. Importantly, the expression of genes associated with wax and cutin synthesis pathways was significantly up-regulated in SbWINL1-OE plants. In summary, we demonstrate that the overexpression of sorghum WINL1 gene in Arabidopsis promotes the accumulation of wax and cutin and thus enhances drought tolerance.