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Abstract
BackgroundAbiotic stresses such as drought and salt stresses have a negative effect on the growth and productivity of plants. Improvement of stress tolerance through genetic engineering in plants has been reported in intense studies. Transcription factors play vital roles in plant adaptation to stresses by regulating expression of a great deal of target genes. A family of Arabidopsis basic region leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors that can recognize and bind to the abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive elements (ABREs) in promoter is named as ABRE binding factors (ABFs)/ABRE binding proteins (AREBs). They play a key role in the regulation of expression of downstream stress-responsive genes in ABA signalling. Genetic transformation of ABF/ABRE transcription factors has been suggested to be an effective approach for engineering stress-tolerant plants. However, whether the ABF/ABRE transcription factors are able to be used for generating stress-tolerant rapeseed plants has not yet been studied.Results BnaABF2, encoding a bZIP transcription factor, was cloned from rapeseed in this study. Subcellular localization and transactivation analyses showed that BnaABF2 was localized to the nucleus with transactivation activity in plant cells. BnaABF2 gene expression was induced by drought and salt stresses and BnaABF2 positively functions in ABA signalling during the vegetative stage. Overexpression of BnaABF2 was found to render drought and salt tolerance to Arabidopsis plants. The resistance of the BnaABF2-expressing transgenic plants to drought and salt stresses is due to reduced water-loss rate and expression of stress-responsive genes such as RD29B, RAB18 and KIN2. The expression of RD29B, RAB18 and KIN2 regulated by BnaABF2 is involved in an ABA-dependent stress signalling.ConclusionsIdentification of the positive role of rapeseed BnaABF2 in plant tolerance to drought and salt provides evidence for ability of engineering stress-tolerant rapeseed plants by genetic transformation of BnaABF2.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40529-016-0127-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Abiotic stresses such as drought and salt stresses have a negative effect on the growth and productiv‐ ity of plants
This study suggests that genetic transformation of BnaABF2 is likely used for engineering stress tolerance in rapeseed
Cloning of rapeseed BnaABF2 gene and analysis of BnaABF2 protein sequence A 1122 bp fragment containing a complete coding region was obtained from rapeseed
Summary
Abiotic stresses such as drought and salt stresses have a negative effect on the growth and productiv‐ ity of plants. A family of Arabidopsis basic region leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors that can recognize and bind to the abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive elements (ABREs) in promoter is named as ABRE binding factors (ABFs)/ ABRE binding proteins (AREBs). They play a key role in the regulation of expression of downstream stress-responsive genes in ABA signalling. ABF/AREB family members are upregulated by various abiotic stresses, such as drought, salt, freezing and heat stresses and are involved in stress/ABA signalling in different plant species (Choi et al 2000; Uno et al 2000; Yáñez et al 2009; Hossain et al 2010; Huang et al 2010)
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