Abstract
Drought stress massively restricts plant growth and the yield of crops. Reducing the deleterious effects of drought is necessary for agricultural industry. The plant-specific NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2 and CUC2) transcription factors (TFs) are widely involved in the regulation of plant development and stress response. One of the NAC TF, JUNGBRUNNEN1 (JUB1), has been reported to involve in drought resistance in Arabidopsis. However, little is known of how the JUB1 gene respond to drought stress in cotton. In the present study, we cloned GhJUB1L1, a homologous gene of JUB1 in upland cotton. GhJUB1L1 is preferentially expressed in stem and leaf and could be induced by drought stress. GhJUB1L1 protein localizes to the cell nucleus, and the transcription activation region of which is located in the C-terminal region. Silencing GhJUB1L1 gene via VIGS () reduced cotton drought tolerance, and retarded secondary cell wall (SCW) development. Additionally, the expression of some drought stress-related genes and SCW synthesis-related genes were altered in the GhJUB1L1 silencing plants. Collectively, our findings indicate that GhJUB1L1 may act as a positive regulator in response to drought stress and SCW development in cotton. Our results enriched the roles of NAC TFs in cotton drought tolerance and laid a foundation for the cultivation of transgenic cotton with higher drought tolerance.
Highlights
Plants often suffer from multifarious biotic and abiotic stresses with a sessile lifestyle
These results indicated that silencing GhJUB1L1 gene can inhibit the expression of drought-related genes, suggesting that GhJUB1L1 may be a positive regulator of cotton drought tolerance
The transgenic plants overexpressing RD26 cDNA were hypersensitive to ABA, and inversely, the transgenic plants with RD26 repressed were insensitive to ABA
Summary
Plants often suffer from multifarious biotic and abiotic stresses with a sessile lifestyle. Drought is one of the most devastating environmental factors which largely restrict the growth and yield of crop plants all over the world. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is an important fiber and oil crop worldwide. The yield of cotton is strongly limited by drought stress. Water is essential in every phase of cotton growth and development. Breeding excellent drought-resistant cotton is the dream pursued by many breeding researchers
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