Knockdown of a Novel Gene OsTBP2.2 Increases Sensitivity to Drought Stress in Rice

Abstract

Drought stress is a major environmental stress, which adversely affects the biological and molecular processes of plants, thereby impairing their growth and development. In the present study, we found that the expression level of OsTBP2.2 which encodes for a nucleus-localized protein member belonging to transcription factor IID (TFIID) family, was significantly induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG) treatment. Therefore, knockdown mutants of OsTBP2.2 gene were generated to investigate the role of OsTBP2.2 in rice response to drought stress. Under the condition of drought stress, the photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, water use efficiency, and stomatal conductance were significantly reduced in ostbp2.2 lines compared with wild type, Dongjin (WT-DJ). Furthermore, the RNA-seq results showed that several main pathways involved in “MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) signaling pathway”, “phenylpropanoid biosynthesis”, “defense response” and “ADP (adenosine diphosphate) binding” were altered significantly in ostbp2.2. We also found that OsPIP2;6, OsPAO and OsRCCR1 genes were down-regulated in ostbp2.2 compared with WT-DJ, which may be one of the reasons that inhibit photosynthesis. Our findings suggest that OsTBP2.2 may play a key role in rice growth and the regulation of photosynthesis under drought stress and it may possess high potential usefulness in molecular breeding of drought-tolerant rice.

Species-specific epigenetic responses to drought stress of two sympatric oak species reflect their ecological preferences

“…They have been involved in DS responses in annuals (Puranik et al ., 2012). The involvement of TFIID encoding genes in DS responses have been shown for A. thaliana (Gao et al, 2006), finger millet (Parvathi et al ., 2019) and rice (Zhang et al ., 2020). These genes could contribute to providing SO species a better tolerance to drought.…”

Advances on the application of non-coding RNA in crop improvement

“…In tomato, overexpression of the miR169c gene led to a reduction in stoma openings, the transpiration rate, and the loss of leaf water, which improved the drought tolerance in transgenic plants compared to wild-type controls (Zhang et al, 2011a). Accordingly, a knockdown of the OsTBP2.2 gene was generated in rice in order to increase rice sensitivity to drought stress (Zhang et al, 2020).…”