Abstract
Ethylene plays a critical signaling role in the abiotic stress tolerance mechanism. However, the role of ethylene in regulating abiotic stress tolerance in petunia has not been well-investigated, and the underlying molecular mechanism by which ethylene regulates abiotic stress tolerance is still unknown. Therefore, we examined the involvement of ethylene in salt and drought stress tolerance of petunia using the petunia wild type cv. “Merage Rose” and the ethylene biosynthesis genes (PhACO1 and PhACO3)-edited mutants (phaco1 and phaco3). Here, we discovered that editing PhACO1 and PhACO3 reduced ethylene production in the mutants, and mutants were more sensitive to salt and drought stress than the wild type (WT). This was proven by the better outcomes of plant growth and physiological parameters and ion homeostasis in WT over the mutants. Molecular analysis revealed that the expression levels of the genes associated with antioxidant, proline synthesis, ABA synthesis and signaling, and ethylene signaling differed significantly between the WT and mutants, indicating the role of ethylene in the transcriptional regulation of the genes associated with abiotic stress tolerance. This study highlights the involvement of ethylene in abiotic stress adaptation and provides a physiological and molecular understanding of the role of ethylene in abiotic stress response in petunia. Furthermore, the finding alerts researchers to consider the negative effects of ethylene reduction on abiotic stress tolerance when editing the ethylene biosynthesis genes to improve the postharvest quality of horticultural crops.
Highlights
Ethylene is considered a key regulator of plant developmental and physiological processes ranging from seed germination to senescence (Pierik et al, 2006)
The growth of wild type (WT) and mutant plants was not affected by salt stress treatment until they were irrigated with water containing 100 mm NaCl
When the NaCl concentration was increased to 150 mm, leaves curled and the internodes shortened, resulting in unhealthytype plants compared to the stage before stress treatment (Figures 4A,B), whereas leave tissues of the mutants were discovered to be thicker than that of WT leaves
Summary
Ethylene is considered a key regulator of plant developmental and physiological processes ranging from seed germination to senescence (Pierik et al, 2006). It acts as a crucial signaling molecule in the abiotic stress tolerance mechanism because plants modulate ethylene to activate signaling pathways that protect them from the harmful effects of abiotic stress (Cao et al, 2007; Peng et al, 2014a; Shen et al, 2014; Zhang et al, 2016). While many researchers reported a positive role of ethylene or its precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) in stress tolerance of various. When genes were edited using the CRISPR/Cas tool, there was a significant reduction in ethylene production in floral organs and prolongation of flower longevity (Xu et al, 2020, 2021), editing of the genes reduced ethylene production in seeds and negatively affected seed germination (Naing et al, 2021a)
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