Mulberry Transcription Factor MnDREB4A Confers Tolerance to Multiple Abiotic Stresses in Transgenic Tobacco

The dehydration responsive element binding (DREB) transcription factors have been reported to be involved in stress responses. Most studies have focused on DREB genes in subgroups A-1 and A-2 in herbaceous plants, but there have been few reports on the functions of DREBs from the A-3-A-6 subgroups a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-12, Vol.10 (12), p.e0145619-e0145619
Main Authors: Liu, Xue-Qin, Liu, Chang-Ying, Guo, Qing, Zhang, Meng, Cao, Bo-Ning, Xiang, Zhong-Huai, Zhao, Ai-Chun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abiotic stress
Amino acids
Arabidopsis
Biochemistry
Biotechnology
Cold tolerance
Dehydration
Drought
Gene expression
Genetic aspects
Genetic engineering
Genomes
Genomics
Laboratories
Leaves
Malondialdehyde
Molecular biology
Morus - genetics
Nicotiana - genetics
Nicotiana - growth & development
Nuclei
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Plant Leaves - genetics
Plant Leaves - growth & development
Plant Roots - genetics
Plant Roots - growth & development
Plant stress
Plants (botany)
Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics
Plants, Genetically Modified - growth & development
Polyamines
Proline
Proteins
Regulatory sequences
Salts
Seedlings
Senescence
Stress (Physiology)
Stress, Physiological
Studies
Subgroups
Tobacco
Tobacco (Plant)
Trans-Activators - biosynthesis
Trans-Activators - genetics
Transcription factors
Transcription, Genetic
Transgenic plants
Trees
Water loss
Wilting
Woody plants
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Summary:The dehydration responsive element binding (DREB) transcription factors have been reported to be involved in stress responses. Most studies have focused on DREB genes in subgroups A-1 and A-2 in herbaceous plants, but there have been few reports on the functions of DREBs from the A-3-A-6 subgroups and in woody plants. Moreover, mulberry trees are ecologically and economically important perennial woody plants, but there has been little research on its stress physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology. In this study, a DREB gene from the mulberry tree, designated as MnDREB4A, classified into the A-4 subgroup by our previous study, was selected for further characterization. Our results showed that the MnDREB4A protein was localized to the nucleus where it activated transcription. The promoter of MnDREB4A can direct prominent expression downstream of the β-glucuronidase (GUS) gene under heat, cold, drought and salt stress, and GUS staining was deepest after 12 h of stress treatment. The MnDREB4A-overexpression transgenic tobacco showed the improved growth phenotype under untreated conditions, such as greener leaves, longer roots, and lower water loss and senescence rates. Overexpression of MnDREB4A in tobacco can significantly enhance tolerance to heat, cold, drought, and salt stresses in transgenic plants. The leaf discs and seedlings of transgenic plants reduced leaf wilting and senescence rates compared to the wild type plants under the different stress conditions. Further investigation showed that transgenic plants also had higher water contents and proline contents, and lower malondialdehyde contents under untreated condition and stress conditions. Our results indicate that the MnDREB4A protein plays an important role in plant stress tolerance.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0145619