Abstract
Gene expression profiles are powerful tools for investigating mechanisms of plant stress tolerance. Betula platyphylla (birch) is a widely distributed tree, but its drought-tolerance mechanism has been little studied. Using RNA-Seq, we identified 2917 birch genes involved in its response to drought stress. These drought-responsive genes include the late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) family, heat shock protein (HSP) family, water shortage-related and ROS-scavenging proteins, and many transcription factors (TFs). Among the drought-induced TFs, the ethylene responsive factor (ERF) and myeloblastosis oncogene (MYB) families were the most abundant. BpERF2 and BpMYB102, which were strongly induced by drought and had high transcription levels, were selected to study their regulatory networks. BpERF2 and BpMYB102 both played roles in enhancing drought tolerance in birch. Chromatin immunoprecipitation combined with qRT-PCR indicated that BpERF2 regulated genes such as those in the LEA and HSP families, while BpMYB102 regulated genes such as Pathogenesis-related Protein 1 (PRP1) and 4-Coumarate:Coenzyme A Ligase 10 (4CL10). Multiple genes were regulated by both BpERF2 and BpMYB102. We further characterized the function of some of these genes, and the genes that encode Root Primordium Defective 1 (RPD1), PRP1, 4CL10, LEA1, SOD5, and HSPs were found to be involved in drought tolerance. Therefore, our results suggest that BpERF2 and BpMYB102 serve as transcription factors that regulate a series of drought-tolerance genes in B. platyphylla to improve drought tolerance.
Highlights
Plant growth is greatly influenced by adverse environmental conditions, such as drought, salt, or extreme temperature
We combined the transcriptome with the transient transformation method to identify genes involved in drought stress tolerance and build a regulatory network
Our results show that the ethylene responsive factor (ERF) and myeloblastosis oncogene (MYB) families may play important roles in
Summary
Plant growth is greatly influenced by adverse environmental conditions, such as drought, salt, or extreme temperature. Drought stress conditions trigger changes in the complex biological processes of plants at the molecular, physiological, and biochemical level Of these changes, gene expression profiles are the first to be altered. Liu et al [5] identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between control plants and PEG-treated Reaumuria soongorica, and they found 379 up-regulated genes and 946 down-regulated genes under drought stress conditions. Analysis of these data revealed biological processes and related regulatory pathways in response to drought stress From their results, they proposed a model that included a pathway for cold stress-responsive signaling to explain the gene expression profiles in sensitive and tolerant rice under drought stress conditions. RNA-Seq has been widely performed to reveal the expression of genes in response to different abiotic stresses on a genome scale, and its results facilitate the understanding of mechanisms involved in abiotic stress tolerance. No5ata-gbly(F, itghuerree w5ha)s. nNoodtaebtleyc,tetdherreeguwlaastonryo rdeelateticotendshriepgbuelatwtoeryenreBlpatEioRnFs2hiapndbeBtwpMeeYnBB1p02ER(FFi2guarneds 4a anBdp5MaY),Bs1u0g2g(eFsitginugret4haatanthdeFyigaurereli5kae)l,ysuingvgoelsvtiendgitnhadtitffheeryenatrereligkuellaytionrvyonlveetdwionrkdsif.ferent regulatory networks
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