Modification of soybean growth and abiotic stress tolerance by expression of truncated ERECTA protein from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Sudha Shanmugam,Soumen Nandy,Vibha Srivastava,Mariya Khodakovskaya,Shan Zhao,Lam-Son Phan Tran

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233383

Sudha Shanmugam, Soumen Nandy + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233383

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Abstract

ERECTA gene family encodes leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases that control major aspects of plant development such as elongation of aboveground organs, leaf initiation, development of flowers, and epidermis differentiation. To clarify the importance of ERECTA signaling for the development of soybean (Glycine max), we expressed the dominant-negative ERECTA gene from Arabidopsis thaliana that is truncated in the kinase domain (AtΔKinase). Expression of AtΔKinase in soybean resulted in the short stature, reduced number of leaves, reduced leaf surface area and enhanced branching in the transgenic plants. The transgenic AtΔKinase soybean plants exhibited increased tolerance to water deficit stress due to the reduction of total leaf area and reduced transpiration compared to the wild-type plants. Production of seeds in AtΔKinase lines was higher compared to wild type at regular conditions of cultivation and after exposure to drought stress. Transgenic seedlings expressing AtΔKinase were also able to withstand salt stress better than the wild-type. Established results demonstrated the significance of native soybean genes (GmER and GmERL) in development and stress response of soybean, and suggested that the truncated ERECTA gene of Arabidopsis thaliana can be used to manipulate the growth and stress response of different crop species.

Highlights

One of the major questions of developmental biology is how the body and organ size of multicellular organisms is controlled by intrinsic factors [1] The ERECTA gene family of leucinerich repeat receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLK) is a pleiotropic regulator of various developmental processes [2]
To disrupt ERECTA signaling in soybean, we took the dominant-negative approach and expressed a truncated version of the Arabidopsis ERECTA gene (AtΔKinase) under the control of native ER promoter (AtERECTApro::AtΔKinase) in soybean plants
We documented that the expression of all three native soybean ERECTA genes was enhanced in all analyzed tissues of the transgenic lines compared to wild type

Summary

Introduction

One of the major questions of developmental biology is how the body and organ size of multicellular organisms is controlled by intrinsic factors [1] The ERECTA gene family of leucinerich repeat receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLK) is a pleiotropic regulator of various developmental processes [2]. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the synergistic action of three ERECTA-gene family, ERECTA(ER),ERECTA-LIKE 1(ERL1) and ERECTA-LIKE 2(ERL2), controls aboveground organ growth and flower development. These genes regulate shoot apical meristem size, help to establish phyllotaxy, and promote cotyledon [3,4]. Arabidopsis thaliana ERECTA gene family inhibits the differentiation of the protodermal cells into meristemoid mother cells, thereby. Through expression in the epidermis, ERECTA gene family controls stomatal formation. These genes decrease the stomatal density in leaves, reducing the overall stomatal conductance and the water loss [5]

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