Transcription Factors in Plant Stress Responses: Challenges and Potential for Sugarcane Improvement

Abstract

Increasing vulnerability of crops to a wide range of abiotic and biotic stresses can have a marked influence on the growth and yield of major crops, especially sugarcane (Saccharum spp.). In response to various stresses, plants have evolved a variety of complex defense systems of signal perception and transduction networks. Transcription factors (TFs) that are activated by different pathways of signal transduction and can directly or indirectly combine with cis-acting elements to modulate the transcription efficiency of target genes, which play key regulators for crop genetic improvement. Over the past decade, significant progresses have been made in deciphering the role of plant TFs as key regulators of environmental responses in particular important cereal crops; however, a limited amount of studies have focused on sugarcane. This review summarizes the potential functions of major TF families, such as WRKY, NAC, MYB and AP2/ERF, in regulating gene expression in the response of plants to abiotic and biotic stresses, which provides important clues for the engineering of stress-tolerant cultivars in sugarcane.

Genome-Wide Identification and Characterization of AP2/ERF Transcription Factor Family Genes in Oil Palm under Abiotic Stress Conditions

“…Based on whole-genome and EST sequence analyses, several researchers identified various numbers of AP2/ERF family members in the genomes of a wider range of plants, including: 147 in Arabidopsis [ 4 , 10 ]; 163 in rice [ 4 , 11 ]; 200 in poplar [ 12 ]; 132 in grapevine [ 13 ]; 131 in cucumber [ 14 ]; 218 in sugarcane [ 15 ]; 119 in Chinese jujube [ 16 ]; 98 in soybean [ 17 ]; 85 in tomato [ 18 ]; 117 in wheat [ 19 ]; 171 in cauliflower [ 20 ]; 134 in California poppy [ 21 ]; 193 in orchardgrass [ 22 ]; 174 in Ammopiptanthus nanus [ 23 ]; and 288 in sunflower [ 24 ]. Moreover, reports have described their prominent role in regulating abiotic stress responses (e.g., cold, salinity, drought, heat, and osmotic stress) in various plants [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. Additional reports have demonstrated improved abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic plants via the expression of AP2/ERF TFs [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ].…”

Transcriptional Regulatory Networks Associate with Early Stages of Potato Virus X Infection of Solanum tuberosum

“…TFs within the AP2/ERF, bZIP, MYB, NAC, and WRKY families control important nodes in gene regulatory networks and metabolic adjustment to environmental factors [ 30 , 31 ]. Investigating TFs that target genes in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance is essential toward understanding traits at the molecular level that may be useful for genetic selection in breeding or engineering stress-tolerant crops [ 32 , 33 ]. We searched the PVX-induced potato transcriptome for TFs and then identified the Arabidopsis orthologues.…”

Post-Synthetic Reduction of Pectin Methylesterification Causes Morphological Abnormalities and Alterations to Stress Response in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…CYP81F2 is involved in glucosinolate biosynthesis in response to fungal pathogenesis as well [ 84 ]. The WRKY family of transcription factors is involved in broad, complex interactions in defense response [ 85 ]. WRKY40 in particular regulates mitogen-activated protein kinase cascades and is implicated in CWI in Arabidopsis [ 57 , 58 , 86 , 87 , 88 ].…”