Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones that accumulate in response to heat and other abiotic stressors. Small HSPs (sHSPs) belong to the most ubiquitous HSP subgroup with molecular weights ranging from 12 to 42 kDa. We have cloned a new sHSP gene, AsHSP17 from creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) and studied its role in plant response to environmental stress. AsHSP17 encodes a protein of 17 kDa. Its expression was strongly induced by heat in both leaf and root tissues, and by salt and abscisic acid (ABA) in roots. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants constitutively expressing AsHSP17 exhibited enhanced sensitivity to heat and salt stress accompanied by reduced leaf chlorophyll content and decreased photosynthesis under both normal and stressed conditions compared to wild type. Overexpression of AsHSP17 also led to hypersensitivity to exogenous ABA and salinity during germination and post-germinative growth. Gene expression analysis indicated that AsHSP17 modulates expression of photosynthesis-related genes and regulates ABA biosynthesis, metabolism and ABA signalling as well as ABA-independent stress signalling. Our results suggest that AsHSP17 may function as a protein chaperone to negatively regulate plant responses to adverse environmental stresses through modulating photosynthesis and ABA-dependent and independent signalling pathways.
BackgroundRed clover (Trifolium pratense L.) is an important cool-season legume plant, which is the most widely planted forage legume after alfalfa. Although a draft genome sequence was published already, the sequences and completed structure of mRNA transcripts remain unclear, which limit further explore on red clover.ResultsIn this study, the red clover transcriptome was sequenced using single-molecule long-read sequencing to identify full-length splice isoforms, and 29,730 novel isoforms from known genes and 2194 novel isoforms from novel genes were identified. A total of 5492 alternative splicing events was identified and the majority of alter spliced events in red clover was corrected as intron retention. In addition, of the 15,229 genes detected by SMRT, 8719 including 186,517 transcripts have at least one poly(A) site. Furthermore, we identified 4333 long non-coding RNAs and 3762 fusion transcripts.ConclusionsWe analyzed full-length transcriptome of red clover with PacBio SMRT. Those new findings provided important information for improving red clover draft genome annotation and fully characterization of red clover transcriptome.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1534-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Changes in fatty acid composition and saturation levels may be involved in leaf tolerance to dehydration during drought stress and recovery on rewatering. The objective of this study was to compare changes in compositional and saturation levels of leaf fatty acids between two cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) contrasting in drought tolerance in response to drought stress and rewatering. Drought‐tolerant ‘Midnight’ and sensitive ‘Brilliant’ were maintained well‐watered (control) or subjected to drought for 15 d by withholding irrigation and then rewatered in a growth chamber. Compared to Brilliant, Midnight maintained higher turf quality, leaf photochemical efficiency, relative water content, and membrane stability expressed as electrolyte leakage during drought stress. Following rewatering, Midnight recovered more rapidly in each parameter than Brilliant. The degree of fatty acid unsaturation decreased in both cultivars during drought stress, and the decrease was less pronounced and occurred later in Midnight. Fatty acid unsaturation level resumed to the control level in Midnight leaves, but did not fully recover in Brilliant after rewatering. The alteration in fatty acid unsaturation level induced by drought and rewatering were mainly due to the changes in the composition of linolenic acids (18:3), linoleic acids (18:2), palmitic acids (16:0), and stearic acids (18:0). Our results suggest that leaf dehydration tolerance and postdrought recovery in Kentucky bluegrass was associated with their ability to maintain relative higher proportion and level of unsaturated fatty acids, particularly linolenic acids and linoleic acids.
Cytokinin (CK) is a vital plant hormone that controls many aspects of growth and development in plants. Nitrogen (N) is the indispensable macronutrient needed in plants and also one of the most important limiting factors for plant growth. This study was designed to investigate the simultaneous effects of CK and N on the visual turf quality and antioxidant metabolism of drought-stressed creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.). ‘PennA-4’ creeping bentgrass treated with trans-zeatin riboside at three rates of CK concentrations of 0, 10 and 100 μM (designated by CK0, 10, and 100) and two nitrogen rates with 2.5 and 7.5 kg N·ha-1 every 15 days (designated by low and high N) in a complete factorial arrangement was grown under two soil moisture regimes: well-watered and drought stress. Exogenous CK improved turf quality and delayed leaf wilting under drought stress, especially under high N. The grasses treated with CK10 and CK100 had lower O2- production and H2O2 concentration than those without CK treatment. The CK100 treatment enhanced the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), and guaiacol peroxidase (POD) by 25%, 22%, 17% and 24%, respectively, relative to CK0. Moreover, the activity changes of the antioxidant enzyme isoforms were more significant under high N condition relative to low N condition. Our results demonstrated the beneficial impacts of CK and N on physiological reactions, especially antioxidant metabolism, and foliar application of CK at 10 or 100 μM plus 7.5 kg ha-1 N biweekly may improve drought stress resistance of creeping bentgrass.
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