Abstract
Plants have evolved with intricate mechanisms to cope with multiple environmental stresses. To adapt with biotic and abiotic stresses, plant responses involve changes at the cellular and molecular levels. The current study was designed to investigate the effects of combinations of different environmental stresses on the transcriptome level of Arabidopsis genome using public microarray databases. We investigated the role of cyclopentenones in mediating plant responses to environmental stress through TGA (TGACG motif-binding factor) transcription factor, independently from jasmonic acid. Candidate genes were identified by comparing plants inoculated with Botrytis cinerea or treated with heat, salt or osmotic stress with non-inoculated or non-treated tissues. About 2.5% heat-, 19% salinity- and 41% osmotic stress-induced genes were commonly upregulated by B. cinerea-treatment; and 7.6%, 19% and 48% of genes were commonly downregulated by B. cinerea-treatment, respectively. Our results indicate that plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses are mediated by several common regulatory genes. Comparisons between transcriptome data from Arabidopsis stressed-plants support our hypothesis that some molecular and biological processes involved in biotic and abiotic stress response are conserved. Thirteen of the common regulated genes to abiotic and biotic stresses were studied in detail to determine their role in plant resistance to B. cinerea. Moreover, a T-DNA insertion mutant of the Responsive to Dehydration gene (rd20), encoding for a member of the caleosin (lipid surface protein) family, showed an enhanced sensitivity to B. cinerea infection and drought. Overall, the overlapping of plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, coupled with the sensitivity of the rd20 mutant, may provide new interesting programs for increased plant resistance to multiple environmental stresses, and ultimately increases its chances to survive. Future research directions towards a better dissection of the potential crosstalk between B. cinerea, abiotic stress, and oxylipin signaling are of our particular interest.
Highlights
Plants are immobile organisms convicted to face numerous environmental stresses during their lifetime
We aimed to identify components of the regulatory networks involved in Arabidopsis responses to B. cinerea infection and abiotic stresses
We investigated whether the regulation of oxo-phytodienoic acid (OPDA) or phytoprostane A1 (PPA1) respondents [11, 27] was regulated by B. cinerea, heat, salinity and osmotic stress
Summary
Plants are immobile organisms convicted to face numerous environmental stresses during their lifetime. Biotic and abiotic stresses often occur suddenly and/or simultaneously; and, immediate plant responses are critical to ensure cell survival [1]. A fundamental strategy for plants to adapt to environmental challenges imposed by biotic and abiotic threats is the modulation of gene expression. Plants tune gene expression along with their physiological needs to promote adaptation to short- as well as long-term environmental changes. There is growing evidence that plants reprogram their responses under continuously changing environmental factors individually, or more frequently, in combination. Depending on the environmental conditions encountered, plants activate a specific program of gene expression [2]. In response to biotic or abiotic stress, gene expression studies found that disease resistance-related genes in corn could be induced or repressed by abiotic stresses [4]
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