Abstract
Growing evidence indicates that some grass species are more tolerant to various abiotic and biotic stresses than many crops. Zinc finger proteins play important roles in plant abiotic and biotic stresses. Although genes coding for these proteins have been cloned and identified in various plants, their function and underlying transcriptional mechanisms in the halophyte Zoysia japonica are barely known. In the present study, ZjZFN1 was isolated from Z. japonica using RACE method. Quantitative real time PCR results revealed that the expression of ZjZFN1 was much higher in leaf than in root and stem tissues, and induced by salt, cold or ABA treatment. The subcellular localization assay demonstrated that ZjZFN1 was localized to the nucleus. Expression of the ZjZFN1 in Arabidopsis thaliana improved seed germination and enhanced plant adaption to salinity stress with improved percentage of green cotyledons and growth status under salinity stress. Physiological and transcriptional analyses suggested that ZjZFN1 might, at least in part, influence reactive oxygen species accumulation and regulate the transcription of salinity responsive genes. Furthermore, RNA-sequencing analysis of ZjZFN1-overexpressing plants revealed that ZjZFN1 may serve as a transcriptional activator in the regulation of stress responsive pathways, including phenylalanine metabolism, α-linolenic acid metabolism and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathways. Taken together, these results provide evidence that ZjZFN1 is a potential key player in plants’ tolerance to salt stress, and it could be a valuable gene in Z. japonica breeding projects.
Highlights
Salinity stress is becoming an increasing abiotic stress that limits crop yield and plant distribution worldwide (Zhu, 2001; Deinlein et al, 2014)
The ZjZFN1 cDNA sequence was deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database with the accession number of KT596064.1
The open reading frame (ORF) of ZjZFN1 was 789 bp in length, which corresponded to 262 amino acids (Figure 1)
Summary
Salinity stress is becoming an increasing abiotic stress that limits crop yield and plant distribution worldwide (Zhu, 2001; Deinlein et al, 2014). 176 and 189 C2H2 zinc finger proteins were identified in Arabidopsis and rice, respectively, supporting that C2H2 is one of the most abundant families of zinc finger proteins in plants (Huang et al, 2007; Yin et al, 2017). These C2H2 zinc finger proteins have been functionally well-characterized in model plants and crops, and reported to play key roles in plant development and responses to environmental stresses. The functions of C2H2 zinc finger proteins in stress responses and the mechanism underlying the regulation of transcription in stress related genes is still unclear, especially in grasses
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