GhGLK1 a Key Candidate Gene From GARP Family Enhances Cold and Drought Stress Tolerance in Cotton.

Jiangna Liu,Zhongli Zhou,Yuqing Hou,Yanchao Xu,Renhai Peng,Fang Liu,Teame Gereziher Mehari,Kunbo Wang,Muhammad Jawad Umer,Yuhong Wang,Xiaoyan Cai

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.759312

Abstract

Drought and low-temperature stresses are the most prominent abiotic stresses affecting cotton. Wild cotton being exposed to harsh environments has more potential to cope with both biotic and abiotic stresses. Exploiting wild cotton material to induce resistant germplasm would be of greater interest. The candidate gene was identified in the BC2F2 population among Gossypium tomentosum and Gossypium hirsutum as wild male donor parent noted for its drought tolerance and the recurrent parent and a high yielding but drought susceptible species by genotyping by sequencing (GBS) mapping. Golden2-like (GLK) gene, which belongs to the GARP family, is a kind of plant-specific transcription factor (TF) that was silenced by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). Silencing of GhGLK1 in cotton results in more damage to plants under drought and cold stress as compared with wild type (WT). The overexpression of GhGLK1 in Arabidopsis thaliana showed that the overexpressing plants showed more adaptability than the WT after drought and cold treatments. The results of trypan blue and 3,3′-diaminobenzidine (DAB) staining showed that after drought and cold treatment, the leaf damage in GhGLK1 overexpressed plants was less as compared with the WT, and the ion permeability was also lower. This study suggested that the GhGLK1 gene may be involved in the regulation of drought and cold stress response in cotton. Our current research findings add significantly to the existing knowledge of cold and drought stress tolerance in cotton.

Highlights

Plants are exposed to a variety of harsh environmental stresses, affecting the photosynthetic rate and normal physiological metabolisms, leading to plant death (Morales et al, 2020)
This study explores the function of the GhGLK1 gene under cold and drought stress through virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in cotton and overexpression in Arabidopsis thaliana
Further screening of T3 generations of expression of pure seeds for phenotype identification and functional verification of the target gene was performed under drought and cold stress

Summary

Introduction

Plants are exposed to a variety of harsh environmental stresses (i.e., cold, heat, and drought), affecting the photosynthetic rate and normal physiological metabolisms, leading to plant death (Morales et al, 2020). Drought has had a significant impact on crop yields. Cold stress can adversely affect plant growth and development, including inhibiting seed germination, slowing plant growth, hindering reproduction, reducing crop yields and quality, and limiting the. GhGLK1 Enhances Stress Tolerance in Cotton geographical distribution of species (Körner, 2016). Many crops, such as rice, maize, tomatoes, soybeans, and cultivated cotton, cannot adapt to low temperatures and can only grow in tropical or subtropical regions (Gong et al, 2020)

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