Overexpression of GhABF3 increases cotton(Gossypium hirsutum L.) tolerance to salt and drought

Abstract

Background Plants suffer from various abiotic stresses during their lifetime, of which drought and salt stresses are two main factors limiting crop yield and quality. Previous studies have shown that abscisic acid (ABA) responsive element binding protein (AREB)/ ABRE binding factors (ABFs) in bZIP transcription factors are involved in plant stress response in an ABA-dependent manner. However, little is known about the properties and functions of AREB/ABFs, especially ABF3, in cotton. Results Here, we reported the cloning and characterization of GhABF3. Expression of GhABF3 was induced by drought,salt and ABA treatments. Silencing of GhABF3 sensitized cotton to drought and salt stress, which was manifested in decreased cellular antioxidant capacity and chlorophyll content. Overexpression of GhABF3 significantly improved the drought and salinity tolerance of Arabidopsis and cotton. Exogenous expression of GhABF3 resulted in longer root length and less leaf wilting under stress conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana. Overexpressing GhABF3 significantly improved salt tolerance of upland cotton by reducing the degree of cellular oxidation, and enhanced drought tolerance by decreasing leaf water loss rate. The increased expression of GhABF3 up-regulated the transcriptional abundance of downstream ABA-inducible genes under salt stress in Arabidopsis. Conclusion In conclusion, our results demonstrated that GhABF3 plays an important role in plant drought and salt tolerance. Manipulation of GhABF3 by biotechnology might be an important strategy to alter the stress resistance of cotton.

SnRK2.4‐mediated phosphorylation of ABF2 regulates ARGININE DECARBOXYLASE expression and putrescine accumulation under drought stress

“…So far, the role of ABF2s from various plants in stress tolerance has been extensively illustrated. Overexpression of A. thaliana ABF2 or its homologous genes from other plants has revealed that the ABF2s function as master regulators for abiotic stress tolerance in an ABA‐dependent pathway (Guan et al ., 2009; Hossain et al ., 2010; Wang et al ., 2021; Zhang et al ., 2022a). However, it is worth mentioning that the physiological mechanism of the ABF2s in drought tolerance is still poorly understood.…”

“…So far, the role of ABF2s from various plants in stress tolerance has been extensively illustrated. Overexpression of A. thaliana ABF2 or its homologous genes from other plants has revealed that the ABF2s function as master regulators for abiotic stress tolerance in an ABA-dependent pathway (Guan et al, 2009;Hossain et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2022a). However, it is worth mentioning that the physiological mechanism of the ABF2s in drought tolerance is still poorly under-Previous studies demonstrated that ABF2s function as positive regulators of drought tolerance possibly by modulating proline biosynthesis, antioxidant activity, water use efficiency, and photosynthetic capacity (Zhao et al, 2016;Kerr et al, 2018).…”

Deep learning‐enabled discovery and characterization of HKT genes in Spartina alterniflora

“…In addition, regulatory elements in most HKT genes in S. alterniflora have more ABRE elements than in rice and Arabidopsis. Previous studies have shown that the ABRE element is involved in the salt stress response of plants (Liu et al, 2022;Narusaka et al, 2003;Zhang et al, 2022). It is plausible that the increased number of ABREs confers elevated salt tolerance to S. alterniflora.…”

Recent progression and future perspectives in cotton genomic breeding

“…ABSCISIC ACID RESPONSIVE ELEMENT‐BINDING FACTORs (ABFs) are TFs that are downstream targets of SnRK2s; these can be phosphorylated to activate the expression of target genes in the ABA signaling pathway. The GhABF3 gene can simultaneously increase tolerance to salt and drought in cotton (Zhang et al, 2022). Finally, the overexpression of an ABA‐induced cotton gene, GhCBF3 , enhanced drought and salinity tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis (Ma et al, 2015).…”