Introduction of Arabidopsis’s heat shock factor HsfA1d mitigates adverse effects of heat stress on potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) plant

Abstract

Thermal stress induces a wide array of morphological and physiological changes in potato affecting its development and economic yield. Response to thermal stress in plants is mostly regulated by heat shock factors (hsfs). The current study aimed at improving heat tolerance by transforming potato plant with heat shock factor, HsfA1d, using Agrobacterium. Gateway cloning strategy was adopted for isolation of HsfA1d from Arabidopsis thaliana and cloning into plant expression vector. The target gene was introduced into potato by infecting internodal explants with Agrobacterium strain GV3101 carrying pGWB402Ω-HsfA1d construct. Upon exposure to heat stress, the wild-type plants turned yellowish, whereas no phenotypic effect on transgenic plants was observed. Expression of HsfA1d in transgenic plants was increased by 5.8-fold under thermal stress compared to room temperature. Transgenic plants exhibited 6-fold increase in the expression of downstream HSP70 under thermal stress compared to wild-type plants. Both chlorophyll a and b were significantly decreased in wild-type plants while no such decrease was recorded in transgenic plants under thermal stress. Heat stress was found to have no significant effect on carotenoid pigments of both wild-type and transgenic plants. Significantly lower electrolyte leakage from transgenic plants was witnessed compared to wild type upon exposure to thermal stress. Transgenic plants accumulated significantly higher proline content compared to wild-type plants under heat stress. It is concluded that HsfA1d plays a vital role in plant thermotolerance and hence can be effectively used to enhance the resistance of crop plants against heat stress.

Heat Stress Resistance Mechanisms of Two Cucumber Varieties from Different Regions

“…Thus investigating the regulators that stabilize cellular metabolic processes in the thermotolerant plant is an efficient strategy for exploring the mechanisms underlying crop heat tolerance. Similar reports showed that the leaf angle and petiole length increased with temperature increase in Arabidopsis thaliana [49,50]. The photosynthetic systems of the two species of cucumber were damaged differently, which is common in crops.…”

“…Although constitutively expressed TFs may play crucial roles in regulating gene expression under high temperatures, heat stress-induced or heat-suppressed TFs in thermotolerant and thermosensitive plants potentially contribute to the differential regulation of downstream genes. HSF is one of the earliest reported and most studied transcription factors family related to heat stress regulation in plants, such as Arabidopsis [88,89], rice [90], tomatoes [91], and potatoes [50].…”

Variability of plant heat shock factors: regulation, interactions and functions.

“…Reduced expression of most heat and many salt and H 2 O 2 -induced genes in QK mutant indicated that HSFA1 genes not only regulate heat tolerance, but control responses to other stresses also (Liu et al , 2011). On the other hand, overexpression of HSFA1 from different species conferred tolerance to several stresses including heat (Higashi, Ohama, Ishikawa, Katori, Shimura, Kusakabe, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, Ishida, Tanaka, Seki, Shinozaki, Sakata, Hayashi & Taji, 2013, Lee, Hubel & Schoffl, 1995, Mishra et al , 2002, Shah, Shah, Ali, Munir, Khan, Iqbal, Ahmed & Jan, 2020, Zhu, Wang, Liu, Zhou, Yan, Yang & Shen, 2018, drought (Bechtold, Albihlal, Lawson, Fryer, Sparrow, Richard, Persad, Bowden, Hickman, Martin, Beynon, Buchanan-Wollaston, Baker, Morison, Schoffl, Ott & Mullineaux, 2013), oxidative treatments (Qian, Chen, Liu, Yang, Li & Zhang, 2014) or heavy metals (Cai, Zhang, Xu, Qi, Li, Ahammed, Xia, Shi, Zhou, Reiter, Yu & Zhou, 2017). HSFA1B overexpression promoted peroxide signaling and enhanced drought and heat tolerance in Arabidopsis and oilseed rape (Bechtold et al , 2013).…”

HsfA1d promotes hypocotyl elongation under chilling via enhancing expression of ribosomal protein genes in Arabidopsis

“…The tripe and quadruple KO mutants were susceptible to multiple heat stress regimes, indicating that HsfA1a , HsfA1b and HsfA1d are the master regulators of heat stress response in Arabidopsis (Liu et al, 2011; Yoshida et al, 2011). HsfA1 genes from Thellungiella salsuginea and Brassica campestris could promote heat tolerance in Arabidopsis and tobacco, respectively (Higashi et al, 2013; Zhu et al, 2018; Shah et al, 2020), suggesting a conserved role of this gene family in heat tolerance. In addition to heat tolerance, HsfA1 genes are important for growth and responses to other environmental variations.…”