Abstract
Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants subjected to water deficit, sodium chloride (NaCl), or abscisic acid treatments were shown to exhibit a significant increase in the amount of leaf cuticular lipids. These stress treatments led to increases in cuticular wax amount per unit area of 32% to 80%, due primarily to 29% to 98% increases in wax alkanes. Of these treatments, only water deficit increased the total cutin monomer amount (by 65%), whereas both water deficit and NaCl altered the proportional amounts of cutin monomers. Abscisic acid had little effect on cutin composition. Water deficit, but not NaCl, increased leaf cuticle thickness (by 49%). Electron micrographs revealed that both water-deprived and NaCl-treated plants had elevated osmium accumulation in their cuticles. The abundance of cuticle-associated gene transcripts in leaves was altered by all treatments, including those performed in both pot-grown and in vitro conditions. Notably, the abundance of the ECERIFERUM1 gene transcript, predicted to function in alkane synthesis, was highly induced by all treatments, results consistent with the elevated alkane amounts observed in all treatments. Further, this induction of cuticle lipids was associated with reduced cuticle permeability and may be important for plant acclimation to subsequent water-limited conditions. Taken together, these results show that Arabidopsis provides an excellent model system to study the role of the cuticle in plant response to drought and related stresses, and its associated genetic and cellular regulation.
Highlights
Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants subjected to water deficit, sodium chloride (NaCl), or abscisic acid treatments were shown to exhibit a significant increase in the amount of leaf cuticular lipids
Control plants were subirrigated with water every 3 d, with waxes sampled on the same day as Impact of Water Deficit, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA) on Cutin Monomer Composition
We report that Arabidopsis plants exposed to a water deficit treatment exhibited a significant increase in total leaf cuticle wax amount of approximately 75% relative to nontreated plants, a value similar to those reported for other plants exposed to water deficit, including both dicotyledonous and graminaceous species (Seiler, 1985; Jefferson et al, 1989; Bondada et al, 1996; Jenks et al, 2001; Samdur et al, 2003; Shepherd and Wynne Griffiths, 2006; Kim et al, 2007a, 2007b; Kosma and Jenks, 2007)
Summary
Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants subjected to water deficit, sodium chloride (NaCl), or abscisic acid treatments were shown to exhibit a significant increase in the amount of leaf cuticular lipids These stress treatments led to increases in cuticular wax amount per unit area of 32% to 80%, due primarily to 29% to 98% increases in wax alkanes. The abundance of the ECERIFERUM1 gene transcript, predicted to function in alkane synthesis, was highly induced by all treatments, results consistent with the elevated alkane amounts observed in all treatments This induction of cuticle lipids was associated with reduced cuticle permeability and may be important for plant acclimation to subsequent water-limited conditions. Though Arabidopsis typically produces very low amounts of leaf wax and cutin, and is a short-lived ephemeral of assumed limited stress adaptation, we report here that cuticle production and associated gene expression in Arabidopsis is highly responsive to water deficit and related treatments including ABA. At the end of the stress treatment period, water deficit-treated plants had a relative water content (RWC) of approximately 60%, the 150 mM-treated plants had a RWC of approximately 79%, the ABA-treated plants RWC was approximately 93%, whereas control plants had a RWC of approximately 95%
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