The Role of Major Transcription Factors in Solanaceous Food Crops under Different Stress Conditions: Current and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Plant growth, development, and productivity are adversely affected by environmental stresses such as drought (osmotic stress), soil salinity, cold, oxidative stress, irradiation, and diverse diseases. These impacts are of increasing concern in light of climate change. Noticeably, plants have developed their adaptive mechanism to respond to environmental stresses by transcriptional activation of stress-responsive genes. Among the known transcription factors, DoF, WRKY, MYB, NAC, bZIP, ERF, ARF and HSF are those widely associated with abiotic and biotic stress response in plants. Genome-wide identification and characterization analyses of these transcription factors have been almost completed in major solanaceous food crops, emphasizing these transcription factor families which have much potential for the improvement of yield, stress tolerance, reducing marginal land and increase the water use efficiency of solanaceous crops in arid and semi-arid areas where plant demand more water. Most importantly, transcription factors are proteins that play a key role in improving crop yield under water-deficient areas and a place where the severity of pathogen is very high to withstand the ongoing climate change. Therefore, this review highlights the role of major transcription factors in solanaceous crops, current and future perspectives in improving the crop traits towards abiotic and biotic stress tolerance and beyond. We have tried to accentuate the importance of using genome editing molecular technologies like CRISPR/Cas9, Virus-induced gene silencing and some other methods to improve the plant potential in giving yield under unfavorable environmental conditions.

Genetic Analysis of Root-to-Shoot Signaling and Rootstock-Mediated Tolerance to Water Deficit in Tomato

“…Several transcription factors from DoF, WRKY, MYB, NAC, bZIP, ERF, and HSF families, previously associated with abiotic and biotic stress response in Solanaceae [ 11 , 17 ], were found within the QTL regions, some of them with maximum root expression ( Table S6 ). Among them, WRKY transcription factors 2 (Solyc04g078550), 5 (Solyc10g007970), 11 (Solyc08g006320), and 17 (Solyc07g051840), previously related to the drought stress response were found within clusters V, XI, VIII, and VII, respectively.…”

“…Since transcription factors participate in activating/repressing gene expression in response to biotic and abiotic stresses, they have been the target of many studies to improve plant stress tolerance [ 11 , 17 ] through reverse genetics. Complementing this strategy, we have found transcription factors belonging to the main families previously associated with the plant stress response (DoF, WRKY, MYB, NAC, bZIP, ERF, ARF, and HSR) in the QTL clusters ( Table S6 ).…”

“…Other hormones, particularly cytokinin, affect the drought stress response [ 3 , 15 ]. Several transcription factors in different species, including crops, have been used to improve plant response to drought stress [ 3 , 10 , 13 , 16 , 17 ]. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades have been identified in various signaling pathways involved in plant development and stress responses [ 18 ].…”

A source-sink model explains the difference in the metabolic mechanism of mechanical damage to young and senescing leaves in Catharanthus roseus

“…Our study found that the WLL group was mainly resistant, while the WUL group was mainly tolerant. After mechanical damage, plants still selectively carry out secondary metabolism under resource limitation, inducing related defense compounds, reducing resource utilization in the repository, and showing the importance of secondary metabolism in response to mechanical damage [54,55]. Therefore, damaged C. roseus must be effectively balanced and allocated under limited resources.…”

Harnessing the Potential of Plant Transcription Factors in Developing Climate-Smart Crops: Future Prospects, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…Plants respond to different abiotic and biotic challenges through changes at the molecular, cellular, biochemical, and physiological levels. In many cases, the driving forces behind these changes are genes encoding transcription activators and repressors that regulate expression of downstream stress responsive genes and modulate different developmental and metabolic pathways [3]. During the past couple of decades, extensive research has focused on the identification of the key factors associated with regulating the molecular response to stress signal perception [2].…”