GmLecRlk, a Lectin Receptor-like Protein Kinase, Contributes to Salt Stress Tolerance by Regulating Salt-Responsive Genes in Soybean.

Yanzheng Zhang,Yongguang Li,Yue Li,Jiqiang Zheng,Zeyang Li,Yingpeng Han,Yuan Feng,Qingwei Fang

doi:10.3390/ijms23031030

Abstract

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is an important oil crop that provides valuable resources for human consumption, animal feed, and biofuel. Through the transcriptome analysis in our previous study, GmLecRlk (Glyma.07G005700) was identified as a salt-responsive candidate gene in soybean. In this study, qRT-PCR analysis showed that the GmLecRlk gene expression level was significantly induced by salt stress and highly expressed in soybean roots. The pCAMBIA3300-GmLecRlk construct was generated and introduced into the soybean genome by Agrobacterium rhizogenes. Compared with the wild type (WT), GmLecRlk overexpressing (GmLecRlk-ox) soybean lines had significantly enhanced fresh weight, proline (Pro) content, and catalase (CAT) activity, and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) and H2O2 content under salt stress. These results show that GmLecRlk gene enhanced ROS scavenging ability in response to salt stress in soybean. Meanwhile, we demonstrated that GmLecRlk gene also conferred soybean salt tolerance when it was overexpressed alone in soybean hairy root. Furthermore, the combination of RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analysis was used to determine that GmLecRlk improves the salt tolerance of soybean by upregulating GmERF3, GmbHLH30, and GmDREB2 and downregulating GmGH3.6, GmPUB8, and GmLAMP1. Our research reveals a new mechanism of salt resistance in soybean, which exposes a novel avenue for the cultivation of salt-resistant varieties.

Highlights

Soybean is an important economic and oil crop, but abiotic stress, such as saline–alkali stress, has a great impact on soybean yield
We found that overexpression of GmNFYB1 in Arabidopsis thaliana increased tolerance to abiotic stress [18], and the differentially expressed gene GmLecRlk was obtained by mining transcriptome data of wild type (WT) and GmNFYB1-ox transgenic soybean, which encodes a G-type lectin receptor protein kinase
We investigated the biological functions of the soybean GmLecRlk in response to salt stress

Summary

Introduction

Soybean is an important economic and oil crop, but abiotic stress, such as saline–alkali stress, has a great impact on soybean yield. Soybean is an important economic and oil crop, but abiotic stress, such as saline–. The translated protein in plant cells need a series of post-translational modifications, in which phosphorylation plays a key role in the process of cell life [2]. Protein phosphorylation is catalyzed by protein kinases, and a class of proteins similar to protein kinases, named receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs), are found in plants. According to the difference in the amino acid sequence of the extracellular domain of plant RLKs, they can be divided into six types: S-domain type [3], leucine-rich multiple sequence type (LRR) [4], epidermal growth factor-like type (EGF) [5], lectin-like type [6], tumor necrosis factor-like receptor type (TNFR) [7], and PR5-like type (PR5K) [8]

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Conclusion