Expression of AhDREB1, an AP2/ERF Transcription Factor Gene from Peanut, Is Affected by Histone Acetylation and Increases Abscisic Acid Sensitivity and Tolerance to Osmotic Stress in Arabidopsis.

Baihong Zhang,Bo Hu,Ling Li,Liangchen Su

doi:10.3390/ijms19051441

Abstract

Drought stress negatively affects plant growth and development. An increasing number of reports have revealed the involvement of APETALA2/Ethylene Responsive Factor (AP2/ERF) transcription factors (TFs) in biotic and abiotic stress regulation in plants. However, research on these TFs in the peanut plant (Arachis hypogaea) has been limited. Here, we isolated a full-length coding sequence (CDS) of the AP2/ERF family gene AhDREB1 from the peanut plant and showed that its expression was induced by Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) 6000 and exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. When overexpressed in Arabidopsis, AhDREB1 increased both ABA levels and ABA sensitivity, affected the ABA signaling pathway and increased the expression of downstream drought stress-related genes RD29A, P5CS1, P5CS2 and NCED1. These results demonstrate that AhDREB1 can improve tolerance to drought via the ABA-dependent pathway in Arabidopsis. In the peanut plant, the specific histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) promotes AhDREB1 transcription and the enrichment level of H3ac was increased in regions of the AhDREB1 gene during TSA and PEG treatment. In summary, histone acetylation can affect the expression of AhDREB1 under osmotic stress conditions, thereby improving plant drought resistance.

Highlights

Plants are sessile and constantly subjected to various abiotic stresses, including drought, cold, high salinity, heat and alkalinity, which seriously affect their growth, development and productivity [1]
The full-length coding sequence (CDS) of AhDREB1 gene was isolated from peanut leaf DNA consists of a 1050-bp open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a polypeptide of 349 amino acid residues and predicted molecular mass ~37.8 kDa (Figure 1A)
Increasing evidence shows that APETALA2/Ethylene Responsive Factor (AP2/ERF) transcription factors (TFs) genes are induced in response to various stresses, including drought, abscisic acid, salt, cold, heat and alkalinity [42]

Summary

Introduction

Plants are sessile and constantly subjected to various abiotic stresses, including drought, cold, high salinity, heat and alkalinity, which seriously affect their growth, development and productivity [1]. Of these stresses, drought is one of main causes of loss in production of agricultural crops across the world [2]. Plants can optimize their growth and development by regulating the expression of numerous stress responses via two main pathways, one of which is abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent, while the other is not [7]. The content of ABA in plants increases rapidly under drought stress conditions, and returns to its original level when the stress is removed. ABA can change the transcription level of drought-related genes via the ABA-responsive element (ABRE) binding protein [12,13]

Methods

Results

Conclusion