Introgression of SbERD4 Gene Encodes an Early-Responsive Dehydration-Stress Protein That Confers Tolerance against Different Types of Abiotic Stresses in Transgenic Tobacco

Abstract

Salicornia brachiata is an extreme halophyte that commonly grows on marsh conditions and is also considered a promising resource for drought and salt-responsive genes. To unveil a glimpse of stress endurance by plants, it is of the utmost importance to develop an understanding of stress tolerance mechanisms. ‘Early Responsive to Dehydration’ (ERD) genes are defined as a group of genes involved in stress tolerance and the development of plants. To increase this understanding, parallel to this expedited thought, a novel SbERD4 gene was cloned from S. brachiata, characterized, and functionally validated in the model plant tobacco. The study showed that SbERD4 is a plasma-membrane bound protein, and its overexpression in tobacco plants improved salinity and osmotic stress tolerance. Transgenic plants showed high relative water, chlorophylls, sugars, starch, polyphenols, proline, free amino acids, and low electrolyte leakage and H2O2 content compared to control plants (wild type and vector control) under different abiotic stress conditions. Furthermore, the transcript expression of antioxidant enzyme encoding genes NtCAT, NtSOD, NtGR, and NtAPX showed higher expression in transgenic compared to wild-type and vector controls under varying stress conditions. Overall, the overexpression of a novel early responsive to dehydration stress protein 4-encoding gene (SbERD4) enhanced the tolerance of the plant against multiple abiotic stresses. In conclusion, the overexpression of the SbERD4 gene mitigates plant physiology by enduring stress tolerance and might be considered as a promising key gene for engineering salinity and drought stress tolerance in crops.

Differential Physio-Biochemical and Metabolic Responses of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under Multiple Abiotic Stress Conditions

“…Proline provides abiotic stress tolerance to plants by modulating osmotic adjustment [ 29 ]. The elevated proline content occurred in plants that were grown under individual salt stress and combined stresses that included salt ( Figure 1 f), more so for S-D (435.20 ± 37.70 µg g −1 , 14.16-fold) compared to the control (30.72 ± 0.47 µg g −1 ).…”

Genome-Wide Characterization and Function Analysis of ZmERD15 Genes’ Response to Saline Stress in Zea mays L.

“…In Arabidopsis , a certain kind of protein containing 16 groups can be rapidly induced by 1 h dehydration treatment, and they are named early responsive dehydration genes (ERD1 to 16) [ 5 ]. Subsequently, ERD families have been confirmed to play crucial roles in stress response, such as drought, cold, and salinity [ 9 , 12 , 18 , 19 ]. To date, however, ERD15s have been cloned from a few species, including Arabidopsis , Glycine max , Vitis amurensis , Solanum lycopersicum , Solanum pennellii , and Ipomoea batatas [ 17 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…Maize ZmERD3 and Arabidopsis AtERD3 both encode methyltransferase [ 7 , 8 ]. The ERD4 of Salicornia brachiata , Brassica juncea , and Arabidopsis are membrane-bound proteins [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. AtERD6 encodes a sugar transporter that can be induced by cold and drought stress [ 11 ].…”

Evolution of the 14-3-3 gene family in monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous and validation of MdGRF13 function in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana

“…Treated WT and transgenic Arabidopsis leaves were taken, snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80℃, and set up three biological replicates. As previously mentioned, relative electrolyte leakage (EL) was calculated (Jha and Mishra 2021). The content of MDA, the activities of SOD, CAT, and POD in Arabidopsis were determined by Comin Biotechnology Kit (Suzhou, Jiangsu, China).…”