Ectopic Expression of Rice PYL3 Enhances Cold and Drought Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays an important role in plant development and adaptation to abiotic stresses. The pyrabactin resistance-like (PYL) gene family has been characterized as intracellular ABA receptors in Arabidopsis. We describe here the functional characterization of PYL3 ABA receptor from a drought-tolerant rice landrace Nagina 22 (N22). The induced expression level of the PYL3 transcript was observed in the N22 under different stress treatments, including cold, drought, high temperature, salt and ABA. In contrast, the expression of PYL3 was down-regulated in drought-susceptible rice cv. IR64 in response to above stresses. C-terminal GFP translational fusion of OsPYL3 was localized to both cytosol and nucleus explaining in part functional conservation of PYL protein as ABA receptor. Arabidopsis transgenic lines overexpressing OsPYL3 were hypersensitive to ABA suggesting ABA signaling pathway-dependent molecular response of the OsPYL3. Further, constitutive overexpression of OsPYL3 in Arabidopsis led to improved cold and drought stress tolerance. Thus, OsPYL3 identified in this study could be a good candidate for genetic improvement of cold and drought stress tolerance of rice and other crop plants.

Genome-wide identification and characterization of ABA receptor PYL gene family in rice

“…Previous functional validation studies have shown that constitutive/stress-inducible overexpression of OsPYL2 [42], OsPYL10 [42,47,87], and OsPYL11 (=RCAR5) [44] conferred tolerance to abiotic stresses. In a previous study, expression analysis of OsPYL11 (=RCAR5) [44] under salt, PEG and ABA treatments showed that it is significantly downregulated by ABA and salt stress.…”

Increased Drought and Salinity Tolerance in Citrus aurantifolia (Mexican Lemon) Plants Overexpressing Arabidopsis CBF3 Gene

“…In this work, a commercial variety of lemon (Citrus aurantifolia) was genetically modified with the aim of generating a drought and salinity tolerant plant through overexpression of the Arabidopsis transcription factor CBF3 In transgenic plants showed higher RWC after drought treatment compared to WT plants. RWC is a parameter routinely used to determine the water status of plants following water stress experiments (Lenka et al 2018). Previous reports characterize a RWC value of 6% as slight stress (Hsiao 1973) similar to that generated in line LM2.…”

Drought and heat stress-related proteins: an update about their functional relevance in imparting stress tolerance in agricultural crops

“…The constitutive expression of PtPYRL1 and PtPYRL5 increases tolerance to drought and high osmolarity in 'poplar' by regulating ABA signaling (Yu et al 2017). The upregulation of OsPYL3 in droughtresistant rice variety, Nagina22 (N22), imparted multiple abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic plants (Lenka et al 2018). In maize also, 13 PYLs (ZmPYLs1-13) were identified and changes in their expression under diverse abiotic stresses showed that they may act as potential candidates for breeding stress-tolerant maize cultivars (He et al 2018).…”

“…Moreover, in combined stress, some unique genes related to protein ubiquitination and aromatic compound metabolism, glutathione transferases, heat shock proteins, and senescence-associated genes were highly expressed (Johnson et al 2014). In maize, the expression level of Lenka et al (2018) SNAC1/NAC TF Rice Drought Higher seed setting, higher osmotic adjustment, cell membrane stability, protection of important macromolecules from degradation, and maintenance of redox homeostasis and detoxification under stress Hu et al (2006) GbMYB5/MYB TF Cotton Drought Enhanced root architecture, root expansion, increase in wateruse efficiency (WUE) and biomass, multiple stress tolerance without yield penalty under stress Chen et al (2015a, b) TaABL1/TF Wheat Drought/heat Hastened stomatal closure, oxidative tolerance under stress, thereby improving tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses. Up-or down-regulation of expression of some stress-related genes controlling stomatal closure under drought stress Xu et al (2014a) OSMSD1/HSP Rice Heat Oxidative tolerance increased chaperone generation and regulation of quality control systems in grains under heat stress Shiraya et al (2015) Fig .…”