A wheat PI4K gene whose product possesses threonine autophophorylation activity confers tolerance to drought and salt in Arabidopsis

Abstract

Phosphoinositides are involved in regulation of recruitment and activity of signalling proteins in cell membranes. Phosphatidylinositol (PI) 4-kinases (PI4Ks) generate PI4-phosphate the precursor of regulatory phosphoinositides. No type II PI4K research on the abiotic stress response has previously been reported in plants. A stress-inducible type II PI4K gene, named TaPI4KIIγ, was obtained by de novo transcriptome sequencing of drought-treated wheat (Triticum aestivum). TaPI4KIIγ, localized on the plasma membrane, underwent threonine autophosphorylation, but had no detectable lipid kinase activity. Interaction of TaPI4KIIγ with wheat ubiquitin fusion degradation protein (TaUDF1) indicated that it might be hydrolysed by the proteinase system. Overexpression of TaPI4KIIγ revealed that it could enhance drought and salt stress tolerance during seed germination and seedling growth. A ubdkγ7 mutant, identified as an orthologue of TaPI4KIIγ in Arabidopsis, was sensitive to salt, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and abscisic acid (ABA), and overexpression of TaPI4KIIγ in the ubdkγ7 mutant compensated stress sensitivity. TaPI4KIIγ promoted root growth in Arabidopsis, suggesting that TaPI4KIIγ might enhance stress resistance by improving root growth. Overexpression of TaPI4KIIγ led to an altered expression level of stress-related genes and changes in several physiological traits that made the plants more tolerant to stress. The results provided evidence that overexpression of TaPI4KIIγ could improve drought and salt tolerance.

A ginseng PgTIP1 gene whose protein biological activity related to Ser128 residue confers faster growth and enhanced salt stress tolerance in Arabidopsis

“…Overexpression of stress-inducible genes in plants is an effective strategy for improving abiotic stress tolerance [56][57][58]. It has been predicted that the selection of the suitable aquaporin isoforms for genetic manipulation is a decisive factor for success in improving abiotic stress tolerance [8].…”

Overexpression of ZmMAPK1 enhances drought and heat stress in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

“…MDA is the main compound produced in plants under drought and heat stress, which can damage membranes and result in cell death (Levine et al 1994, Liu et al 2013a). The higher the content of MDA, the higher is the danger to plant survival under environmental stress.…”

“…For the water-deficit treatment, watering was withheld from three-week-old seedlings for 14 d and then the plants were re-watered. For the salt-tolerance assay, the three-week-old seedlings were treated with 250 mM NaCl for 7 d. For the heat-stress treatment assay, the three-week-old seedlings were exposed to 37 °C for 3 d, and then returned to the normal growth environment (Liu et al 2013a;Lv et al 2011). All the treatments were performed in triplicate.…”

Arabidopsis thaliana: A Model for Plant Research

“…Constitutive overexpression of CBF orthologues from rice and maize has resulted in drought tolerance in Arabidopsis (Dubouzet et al 2003 ;Qin et al 2004 ). Also, PI4K (phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase) gene from wheat has been ectopically overexpressed in Arabidopsis to confer drought tolerance (Liu et al 2013 ).…”