Abstract
Brown alga Ectocarpus sp. belongs to Phaeophyceae, a class of macroalgae that evolved complex multicellularity. Ectocarpus sp. is a dominant seaweed in temperate regions, abundant mostly in the intertidal zones, an environment with high levels of abiotic stresses. Previous transcriptomic analysis of Ectocarpus sp. revealed several genes consistently induced by various abiotic stresses; one of these genes is Esi0017_0056, which encodes a protein with unknown function. Bioinformatics analyses indicated that the protein encoded by Esi0017_0056 is soluble and monomeric. The protein was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli, Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana benthamiana. In A. thaliana the gene was expressed under constitutive and stress inducible promoters which led to improved tolerance to high salinity and temperature stresses. The expression of several key abiotic stress-related genes was studied in transgenic and wild type A. thaliana by qPCR. Expression analysis revealed that genes involved in ABA-induced abiotic stress tolerance, K+ homeostasis, and chaperon activities were significantly up-regulated in the transgenic line. This study is the first report in which an unknown function Ectocarpus sp. gene, highly responsive to abiotic stresses, was successfully expressed in A. thaliana, leading to improved tolerance to salt and temperature stress.
Highlights
Unfavorable abiotic stress conditions, including high salinity and temperature stress, negatively influence plant performance resulting in significant reduction of agricultural productivity
Ectocarpus sp. in A. thaliana resulted in enhanced tolerance to high salinity and high temperature stress
Gene expression analysis revealed that the expression of several key stress markers genes involved in various functions such abscisic acid mediated abiotic stress tolerance, sodium sequestration, chaperon activities and membrane stability was up-regulated in transgenic plants
Summary
Unfavorable abiotic stress conditions, including high salinity and temperature stress, negatively influence plant performance resulting in significant reduction of agricultural productivity. It has been predicted that in order to feed around 9 billion people agricultural productivity must double in the near future Completing this demand will be challenging due to the continuous decline in the availability of water for irrigation, changing weather patterns, and the reduction of arable land area. Brown algae are among the few eukaryotic lineages which have evolved complex multicellularity [2] These organisms have been evolving over a billion years, and during evolution, they acquired a number of distinct characteristics that are absent in the other eukaryotic lineages. The beneficial effects include enhanced seed germination and plant establishment, improved resistance to environmental stresses, improved crop performance and enhanced post-harvest life [8,9,11]
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