BEAR1, a bHLH Transcription Factor, Controls Salt Response Genes to Regulate Rice Salt Response

Yantong Teng,Tao Chen,Min Lv,Xiangxiang Zhang,Maohong Cai

doi:10.1007/s12374-022-09347-4

Abstract

Transcription factors play important roles in plant abiotic stresses. However, there are a large number of TF functions in rice salt response need to be characterized. Our study identified a new transcription factor, BEAR1, acts as a regulator of rice salt response. We used artificial microRNA to generate BEAR1 knockdown transgenic rice, and CRISPR to generate BEAR1 gene editing mutant lines. Both knockdown lines and mutant lines showed salt sensitive phenotypes, compared to NIP. Transient expression in rice protoplast was used to confirm the subcellular localization of BEAR1. The transcription activity of BEAR1 was detected by yeast system. BEAR1 was induced by salt stress and dominantly expressed in root at seedling stage and spikelet at mature stage. BEAR1 regulating rice salt response by controlling expression levels of many salt-related genes, including salt response marker genes and ion transporter genes. The study revealed that BEAR1 was a regulator of rice salt response.

Highlights

Salt stress influences plant growth and development during the whole life cycle, which can result in growth retardation, membrane damage, ion balance turbulence, lipid peroxidation, ROS accumulation (Yang and Guo 2018)
In addition to an AP2/ERF family protein IDS1, we found BEAR1, a bHLH TF, was regulated by salt stress signal
The sequence was subcloned into plant binary vector pCAMBIA1302 and we named the construct pBEAR1-ami

Summary

Introduction

Salt stress influences plant growth and development during the whole life cycle, which can result in growth retardation, membrane damage, ion balance turbulence, lipid peroxidation, ROS accumulation (Yang and Guo 2018). High salt level can be monitored by GIPC (glycosyl inositol phosphorylceramide) in the plant cell membrane. MOCA1, as a glucuronosyltransferase for GIPC, plays vital role in salt-induced membrane depolarization, and C a2+ signal. Salt stress can rapidly induce ROS generation, which is harmful for plant cell. The scavenging of ROS plays important role in the plant adaptation formation in high salt circumstance (Miller et al 2010). ROS scavengers participate in active-oxygeninduced cell damage repair. NCA1, a chaperone protein, can interact with CAT2 and increase the enzyme activity of H2O2 degradation (Li et al 2015)

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Results

Conclusion