Abstract
Plants, as sessile organisms, adapt to different stressful conditions, such as drought, salinity, extreme temperatures, and nutrient deficiency, via plastic developmental and growth responses. Depending on the intensity and the developmental phase in which it is imposed, a stress condition may lead to a broad range of responses at the morphological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels. Transcription factors are key components of regulatory networks that integrate environmental cues and concert responses at the cellular level, including those that imply a stressful condition. Despite the fact that several studies have started to identify various members of the MADS-box gene family as important molecular components involved in different types of stress responses, we still lack an integrated view of their role in these processes. In this review, we analyze the function and regulation of MADS-box gene family members in response to drought, salt, cold, heat, and oxidative stress conditions in different developmental processes of several plants. In addition, we suggest that MADS-box genes are key components of gene regulatory networks involved in plant responses to stress and plant developmental plasticity in response to seasonal changes in environmental conditions.
Highlights
Plants face seasonal fluctuations and stressful environmental conditions, involving alterations in light quality and regimes, precipitation, nutrient availability, temperature, drought, flooding, salinity, and UV exposure, among others
The function of MADS-domain proteins has been widely studied in different organisms; these proteins participate in different developmental processes in plants (Smaczniak et al, 2012a), in neural signal transmission, muscle development, and tumor occurrence in humans (Cao et al, 2016), and in osmotic stress response and cell survival in the stationary phase in yeast (Nadal et al, 2003)
CO and FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT)-like genes have been identified in barley and some grass species but their functions in flowering have not been described (Turner et al, 2005; King et al, 2006; Yan et al, 2006; Faure et al, 2007). Another MADS-box gene with weak similarity to SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1), HvOS2 was found in barley (Hordeum vulgare) and its transcript levels decrease during vernalization in a pattern similar to that of FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) in Arabidopsis (Figure 3)
Summary
Plants face seasonal fluctuations and stressful environmental conditions, involving alterations in light quality and regimes (e.g., short or long days), precipitation, nutrient availability, temperature, drought, flooding, salinity, and UV exposure, among others. Stressful conditions affect multiple metabolic pathways that, in turn, can induce and integrate different intrinsic responses affecting developmental and plant morphogenetic responses These responses allow plants to survive and adapt to a plethora of environments. In Arabidopsis, MADS-box genes participate in diverse developmental processes such as meristem specification, flowering transition, seed, root and flower development, and fruit ripening (Smaczniak et al, 2012a) Their function in flower development has been deeply studied and summarized in many excellent reviews (Smaczniak et al, 2012a; Yan et al, 2016; Bartlett, 2017; Bloomer and Dean, 2017; Whittaker and Dean, 2017; Callens et al, 2018; Theißen et al, 2018). The aim of this review is to integrate and analyze the available information regarding the participation of MADSdomain proteins in regulatory networks involved in abiotic stress and developmental plastic responses, primarily in Arabidopsis (see Figures 1, 2), and in other plant species (see Figures 2A–C, 3)
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