Analyzing the Expression Profile of AREB/ABF and DREB/CBF Genes under Drought and Salinity Stresses in Grape (Vitis vinifera L.).

Hana Zandkarimi,Houshang Alizade,Ali Ebadi,Seyed Alireza Salami,Niranjan Baisakh,Girdhar K Pandey

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134288

Hana Zandkarimi, Houshang Alizade + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134288

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Abstract

Expression patterns of four candidate AREB/ABF genes and four DREB/CBF genes were evaluated in leaf and root tissues of five grape varieties (‘Qalati’, ‘Kaj Angoor’, ‘Sabz Angoor’, ‘Siahe Zarghan’, ‘Bidane Safid’) with differential response to drought stress. Among the AREB/ABF genes, AREB1 and ABF2 showed up-regulation in response to drought stress in leaf and root tissues of all varieties while AREB2 and ABF1 showed down-regulation in both leaf and root tissues of the sensitive variety ‘Bidane Sefid’ in response to drought and salt stress. Among the DREB/CBF genes, CBF4 was the most responsive to drought stress in both leaf and root tissues. CBF2 and CBF3 showed up-regulation in all varieties in response to drought stress in leaf except in ‘Bidane Sefid’. Under salinity stress, AREB2 and ABF2 showed up-regulation in response to the increasing level of salinity in the leaf tissues but in the root tissues ABF2 was up-regulated in response to increasing NaCl concentration while AREB2 was down-regulated. Therefore, it seems AREB2 has tissue-specific response to salinity stress. All CBF genes were up-regulated in response to salinity stress in the leaf and root tissues. Expression data suggested that CBF2 is more responsive to NaCl stress. Among all four promising and stress tolerant varieties ‘Siah Zarghan’ and ‘Kaj Angoor’ were more tolerant than ‘Qalati’ and ‘Sabz Angoor’ to drought and salinity.

Highlights

Plants respond and adapt to stress conditions through different mechanisms at the molecular, cellular, physiological, and biochemical levels
Four each belonging to ABRE-binding protein (AREB)/ABRE binding factors (ABFs) and dehydration-responsive element binding protein (DREB)/CBF, in five grape varieties showed time- and tissue-dependent variation in their expression patterns in the leaf and root tissues under drought (Figs 1 and 2; S1 and S2 Tables) and salt (Figs 3 and 4; S3 and S4 Tables) stress treatments
Expression pattern of abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive genes is regulated mainly by two different family of basic domain leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors (TFs): one that is active in seeds (ABIs) and the other in vegetative tissues (AREB/ABFs) [6][44,45,46,47]

Summary

Introduction

Plants respond and adapt to stress conditions through different mechanisms at the molecular, cellular, physiological, and biochemical levels. An important step in understanding how a genome functions in a different environmental cue is to determine the pattern as how the expression of the genes is regulated. Various adverse environmental stresses change the expression pattern of a variety of genes in many plant species [1]. Among the stress related genes, transcription factors (TFs) play an important role in regulating plant’s response to stress conditions. TFs act as master switches and trigger simultaneous expression of a large number of PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0134288. TFs act as master switches and trigger simultaneous expression of a large number of PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0134288 July 31, 2015

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