Overexpression of a Vesicle Trafficking Gene, OsRab7, Enhances Salt Tolerance in Rice

Abstract

High soils salinity is a main factor affecting agricultural production. Studying the function of salt-tolerance-related genes is essential to enhance crop tolerance to stress. Rab7 is a small GTP-binding protein that is distributed widely among eukaryotes. Endocytic trafficking mediated by Rab7 plays an important role in animal and yeast cells, but the current understanding of Rab7 in plants is still very limited. Herein, we isolated a vesicle trafficking gene, OsRab7, from rice. Transgenic rice over-expressing OsRab7 exhibited enhanced seedling growth and increased proline content under salt-treated conditions. Moreover, an increased number of vesicles was observed in the root tip of OsRab7 transgenic rice. The OsRab7 over-expression plants showed enhanced tolerance to salt stress, suggesting that vacuolar trafficking is important for salt tolerance in plants.

Vesicular trafficking and salinity responses in plants

“…Overexpression of RabG3e in Arabidopsis enhanced the uptake of endocytic tracer FM1‐43 and significantly improved salt tolerance when compared with WT plants . This approach has been extended to other species: the overexpression of OsRab7 generates salt‐resistant rice plants , and the overexpression of Rab7 gene from the halophyte Prosopis juliflora generates salt‐resistant tobacco plants .…”

A novelAzotobacter vinellandii(SRIAz3) functions in salinity stress tolerance in rice

“…12 In rice, the higher proline accumulation in response to salinity stress confers plant tolerance to high salinity. 13 The parallel evidence involving increased proline and plant tolerance to stress suggests that proline could have a protective function. 12 In this study, the elevated level of proline in A. vinellandii inoculated rice (Fig.…”

Identification, Characterization and Expression Profiling of Stress-Related Genes in Easter Lily (Lilium formolongi)

“…However, in Arabidopsis AtRabG3e ( Rab7 ) is induced during biotic stresses due to infection by B. cinerea , leading to hypersensitive cell death [ 106 , 107 ]. AtRabGTPases are involved in intracellular vesicle trafficking, resulting in plant adaptation to pathogen stress [ 23 , 107 ].…”

“…LfRab was also significantly induced at 24 h after salt-stress treatment ( Figure 9 ), indicating its possible association with the salt tolerance mechanism. Arabidopsis AtRabG3e ( Rab7 ) [ 107 ] and rice OsRab7 [ 23 ] are highly induced under salt-stress conditions, suggesting that this gene family functions in salt tolerance. Indeed, overexpressing these genes increases salt tolerance in plants by enhanced vesicle trafficking.…”

“…Another type of stress-induced protein, the RAB, is conserved from yeast to animals. These proteins are linked to intracellular vesicle trafficking and play a vital role in plant resistance to pathogen and environmental stresses [ 22 , 23 ].…”