GsMAS1 Encoding a MADS-box Transcription Factor Enhances the Tolerance to Aluminum Stress in Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

The MADS-box transcription factors (TFs) are essential in regulating plant growth and development, and conferring abiotic and metal stress resistance. This study aims to investigate GsMAS1 function in conferring tolerance to aluminum stress in Arabidopsis. The GsMAS1 from the wild soybean BW69 line encodes a MADS-box transcription factor in Glycine soja by bioinformatics analysis. The putative GsMAS1 protein was localized in the nucleus. The GsMAS1 gene was rich in soybean roots presenting a constitutive expression pattern and induced by aluminum stress with a concentration-time specific pattern. The analysis of phenotypic observation demonstrated that overexpression of GsMAS1 enhanced the tolerance of Arabidopsis plants to aluminum (Al) stress with larger values of relative root length and higher proline accumulation compared to those of wild type at the AlCl3 treatments. The genes and/or pathways regulated by GsMAS1 were further investigated under Al stress by qRT-PCR. The results indicated that six genes resistant to Al stress were upregulated, whereas AtALMT1 and STOP2 were significantly activated by Al stress and GsMAS1 overexpression. After treatment of 50 μM AlCl3, the RNA abundance of AtALMT1 and STOP2 went up to 17-fold and 37-fold than those in wild type, respectively. Whereas the RNA transcripts of AtALMT1 and STOP2 were much higher than those in wild type with over 82% and 67% of relative expression in GsMAS1 transgenic plants, respectively. In short, the results suggest that GsMAS1 may increase resistance to Al toxicity through certain pathways related to Al stress in Arabidopsis.

Recent Advances in Understanding Mechanisms of Plant Tolerance and Response to Aluminum Toxicity

“…A MADS-box transcription factor, GsMAS1, presents a constitutive expression pattern induced under Al stress. The overexpression of GsMAS1 enhanced the tolerance to Al stress in Arabidopsis with larger values of the relative root length and higher proline accumulation as compared with those of wild type (WT) under Al stress through Al stress-related pathways [135]. These findings emphasize the need to study transcription factors involved in Al tolerance, which could help to understand the entire molecular network of Al tolerance in plants, elucidate the mechanism of plant Al tolerance, and lay a theoretical foundation for the cultivation of Al-tolerant varieties using modern molecular techniques.…”

Quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis provides insights into the aluminum-responsiveness of Tamba black soybean

“…Evidence shows that transcription factors such as the MYB [16], WRKY [35], zinc finger protein [27], MADS-box [36], NAC [37,38] and bZIP [39] families are required for Al 3+ responses. In our work, the zinc finger protein GIS2 and MYB183 were hyperphosphorylated under Al 3+ stress, while bZIP56 and GT-2 were hypophosphorylated ( Fig 5, S2 and S9 Tables).…”

GsMYB7 encoding a R2R3-type MYB transcription factor enhances the tolerance to aluminum stress in soybean (Glycine max L.)

“…Soybean is an important food crop which is widely grown in the world. Wild soybeans have many excellent genes that can be crossed with cultivated soybeans to produce new genes and alleles to improve the yield and quality of cultivated soybeans [23]. Wild soybean demonstrates potential resistance to abiotic stresses such as drought, salt stress [24].…”