Abstract
Ipomoea cairica is a tropical plant and a wild relative of the food plant sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), listed as one of the most invasive alien species in China. Recently, it has been reported that I. cairica had successfully invaded mangrove wetlands, indicating its high salt tolerance. Based on previous genetic studies, I. cairica offers a good model for characterizing stress-resistant genes. It has recently been identified that the SRO proteins (SIMILAR TO RCD-ONE) play important roles in a variety of stress and developmental responses. Radical-Induced Cell Death1 (RCD1) was the first identified plant SRO protein from Arabidopsis thaliana. As a typical SRO protein, IcSRO1 had a highly conservative WWE domain, a conserved PARP fold and protein C in the RST function area. The expression of IcSRO1 was induced by salt, drought, and the plant hormone ABA. The transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing IcSRO1 showed higher tolerance against salt and drought stress along with lower accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide (O2−) than the wild type. The IcSRO1 protein was localized in the nucleus after cultivation in the buffer. Our results indicated it could interact with Arabidopsis SALT OVERLY SENSITIVE 1 (AtSOS1), suggesting IcSRO1 may have similar functions. The pleiotropic effect of IcSRO1 on physiological processes contributes to the improvement of plant tolerance against diverse abiotic stresses, and may be associated with the adaptation of I. cairica to those environments with extreme saline and drought conditions. It therefore provides valuable gene resources for crop breeding enhancement.
Highlights
Ipomoea cairica (L.), Sweet (Convolvulaceae), is an extremely fast-growing perennial creeping liana, believed to be native from tropical Africa or South America [1,2,3,4]
The first SIMILAR TO RCD-ONE1 (SRO) protein identified from Arabidopsis thaliana is Radical-Induced Cell Death1 (RCD1), named after its function in cell death induced by radicals
Isolation of IcSRO1 and sequence analysis IcSRO1 was from cloned I. cairica and the open reading frame (ORF) comprising 1806 bp was obtained by PCR, encoding a protein of 601 amino acid residues
Summary
Ipomoea cairica (L.), Sweet (Convolvulaceae), is an extremely fast-growing perennial creeping liana, believed to be native from tropical Africa or South America [1,2,3,4]. In China, I. cairica started its invasion of Hong Kong in 1912, and it has expanded widely to most of the provinces in South China [5] This vine has invaded natural landscapes, abandoned farmland, roadsides, residential areas, and even artificial forests and has caused severe damage to ecosystems and local economies [6]. The function of SRO proteins, named as SIMILAR TO RCD-ONE, participating in a variety of stress and developmental responses, has been reported recently. The first SRO protein identified from Arabidopsis thaliana is RCD1, named after its function in cell death induced by radicals It is a stress-associated hub, reported to interact with over 30 proteins, 21 of which are recognized as transcription factors from different families [30,31]. The gene was transformed into Arabidopsis thaliana for further functional identification
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