AdRAP2.3, a Novel Ethylene Response Factor VII from Actinidia deliciosa, Enhances Waterlogging Resistance in Transgenic Tobacco through Improving Expression Levels of PDC and ADH Genes

Abstract

APETALA2/ethylene-responsive factor superfamily (AP2/ERF) is a transcription factor involved in abiotic stresses, for instance, cold, drought, and low oxygen. In this study, a novel ethylene-responsive transcription factor named AdRAP2.3 was isolated from Actinidia deliciosa ‘Jinkui’. AdRAP2.3 transcription levels in other reproductive organs except for the pistil were higher than those in the vegetative organs (root, stem, and leaf) in kiwi fruit. Plant hormones (Salicylic acid (SA), Methyl-jasmonate acid (MeJA), 1-Aminocyclopropanecarboxylic Acid (ACC), Abscisic acid (ABA)), abiotic stresses (waterlogging, heat, 4 °C and NaCl) and biotic stress (Pseudomonas Syringae pv. Actinidiae, Psa) could induce the expression of AdRAP2.3 gene in kiwi fruit. Overexpression of the AdRAP2.3 gene conferred waterlogging stress tolerance in transgenic tobacco plants. When completely submerged, the survival rate, fresh weight, and dry weight of transgenic tobacco lines were significantly higher than those of wile type (WT). Upon the roots being submerged, transgenic tobacco lines grew aerial roots earlier. Overexpression of AdRAP2.3 in transgenic tobacco improved the pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) enzyme activities, and improved the expression levels of waterlogging mark genes NtPDC, NtADH, NtHB1, NtHB2, NtPCO1, and NtPCO2 in roots under waterlogging treatment. Overall, these results demonstrated that AdRAP2.3 might play an important role in resistance to waterlogging through regulation of PDC and ADH genes in kiwi fruit.

Mechanisms of Waterlogging Tolerance in Plants: Research Progress and Prospects

“…The genes influence the alcoholic fermentation process such as ADH1-1 , ADH1-2 , ADH1-3 , PDC1 , and PDC2 induced and suppressed in overexpressed and silenced plants, respectively ( Yin et al, 2019 ). Similarly, the induced expression levels of NtPDC , NtADH , NtHB1 , NtHB2 , NtPCO1 , and NtPCO2 genes in AdRAP2.3 overexpressed tobacco plants presented its association with the enhanced waterlogging stress tolerance ( Pan et al, 2019 ). In wheat, waterlogging stress can significantly hinder the physiological activities particularly photosynthesis, which ultimately reduce the grain yield and affect overall yield.…”

WRKY33 interacts with WRKY12 protein to up‐regulate RAP2.2 during submergence induced hypoxia response in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…As one of the biggest transcription factor families in plants, WRKYs reportedly regulate gene expression mainly via W box CEs (Yang et al, 2018;Abeysinghe et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2019). Previous studies have revealed that ERF-VII genes play a positive key role in response to low-oxygen stress conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana (Gibbs et al, 2015;Papdi et al, 2015;Pan et al, 2019;Wei et al, 2019), which has five members: RAP2.2, RAP2.3, RAP2.12, HRE1 and HRE2. We then found that promoters of four of them contain the W-box CEs (http://bioinf ormatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/plantcare/html/) (Figs 4c, S3a).…”

Reference genes for quantitative real-time PCR normalization of Cenostigma pyramidale roots under salt stress and mycorrhizal association

“…Specifically, AP2/ERF is one of the largest plant transcription factor families participating in plant development and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. It has been characterized based on either one or two AP2 domains, where the ERF subfamily has one AP2 domain ( Pan et al ., 2019 )⁠. Plant hormones as salicylic acid (SA), methyl-jasmonate acid (MeJA), 1-aminocyclopropanecarboxylic acid (ACC), and abscisic acid (ABA), besides abiotic (including NaCl) and biotic stresses, could induce the expression of RAP2-3 gene ( Pan et al ., 2019 )⁠.…”