GmDNJ1, a type‐I heat shock protein 40 (HSP40), is responsible for both Growth and heat tolerance in soybean

Abstract

Global warming poses severe threats to agricultural production, including soybean. One of the major mechanisms for organisms to combat heat stress is through heat shock proteins (HSPs) that stabilize protein structures at above‐optimum temperatures, by assisting in the folding of nascent, misfolded, or unfolded proteins. The HSP40 subgroups, or the J‐domain proteins, functions as co‐chaperones. They capture proteins that require folding or refolding and pass them on to HSP70 for processing. In this study, we have identified a type‐I HSP40 gene in soybean, GmDNJ1, with high basal expression under normal growth conditions and also highly inducible under abiotic stresses, especially heat. Gmdnj1‐knockout mutants had diminished growth in normal conditions, and when under heat stress, exhibited more severe browning, reduced chlorophyll contents, higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) contents, and higher induction of heat stress‐responsive transcription factors and ROS‐scavenging enzyme‐encoding genes. Under both normal and heat‐stress conditions, the mutant lines accumulated more aggregated proteins involved in protein catabolism, sugar metabolism, and membrane transportation, in both roots and leaves. In summary, GmDNJ1 plays crucial roles in the overall plant growth and heat tolerance in soybean, probably through the surveillance of misfolded proteins for refolding to maintain the full capacity of cellular functions.

Regulation of Heat Stress in Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens Provides Novel Insight into the Functions of Plant RNase H1s

“…Heat responsive genes play critical roles in regulating the resistance/tolerance of plants to heat stress. GmDNJ1 (a major HSP40 ) was induced by heat stress and was responsible for enhanced heat tolerance in soybean [ 10 ]. In tomatoes, the expression levels of LeCDJ1 of Lycopersicon esculentum and SlDnaJ20 of Solanum lycopersicum were induced by heat stress, and overexpression of LeCDJ1 or SlDnaJ20 could improve the heat tolerance of plants [ 9 , 58 ].…”

“…The expression levels of these genes are up-regulated to improve heat tolerance in plants [ 4 , 6 ]. For example, GmDNJ1 (a major HSP40 ) is highly induced at high temperature, and Gmdnj1 -knockout mutants have more severe browning and lower chlorophyll content, and higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) content under HS, which suggest that GmDNJ1 plays an important role in response to heat stress in soybean [ 10 ].…”

Improvement of heat stress tolerance in soybean (Glycine max L), by using conventional and molecular tools

“…The soybean gene, Gmdnj1 positively regulated the heat tolerance in transgenic lines. Results showed that Gmdnj1 enhanced heat tolerance by searching misfolded proteins for refolding to sustain the total capacity of cellular roles ( Li et al, 2021 ). Nowadays, transgenic techniques are practiced using efficient transformation vectors.…”

“…However, available data is insufficient to comprehensively evaluate transgenic lines under extreme heat stress conditions. It would be better to generate a substantial germplasm center and identify the gene for heat tolerance and transfer using Agrobacterium vectors ( Li et al, 2021 ). Transgenic soybean performed best under extreme heat stress conditions; however, further studies are required to identify more potent genes for genetic engineering to develop heat-tolerant genotypes.…”

Progress in soybean functional genomics over the past decade

“…Drought and salinity can reduce soybean yield by 40% through negative impacts on growth, nodulation, flowering, seed quality and seed quantity (Anderson et al ., 2019; Papiernik et al ., 2005; Specht et al ., 1999). Stress (including drought, salt, temperature stress, flooding and disease) has been intensely studied in soybean (Kunert et al ., 2016; Li et al ., 2021; Li et al ., 2014a; Phang et al ., 2008; Ramesh et al ., 2019; Robison et al ., 2019; Shu et al ., 2020; Whitham et al ., 2016; Widyasari et al ., 2020).…”