The Kinase CIPK11 Functions as a Negative Regulator in Drought Stress Response in Arabidopsis.

Yanlin Ma,Xufeng Li,Qiaoqiao Chen,Zhibin Liu,Jianmei Wang,Jing Cao,Yi Yang,Jiahan He

doi:10.3390/ijms20102422

Abstract

Drought is a major limiting factor for plant growth and crop productivity. Many Calcineurin B-like interacting protein kinases (CIPKs) play crucial roles in plant adaptation to environmental stresses. It is particularly essential to find the phosphorylation targets of CIPKs and to study the underlying molecular mechanisms. In this study, we demonstrate that CIPK11 acts as a novel component to modulate drought stress in plants. The overexpression of CIPK11 (CIPK11OE) in Arabidopsis resulted in the decreased tolerance of plant to drought stress. When compared to wild type plants, CIPK11OE plants exhibited higher leaf water loss and higher content of reactive oxygen species (ROS) after drought treatment. Additionally, a yeast two hybrid screening assay by using CIPK11 as a bait captures Di19-3, a Cys2/His2-type zinc-finger transcription factor that is involved in drought stress, as a new interactor of CIPK11. Biochemical analysis revealed that CIPK11 interacted with Di19-3 in vivo and it was capable of phosphorylating Di19-3 in vitro. Genetic studies revealed that the function of CIPK11 in regulating drought stress was dependent on Di19-3. The transcripts of stress responsive genes, such as RAB18, RD29A, RD29B, and DREB2A were down-regulated in the CIPK11OE plants. Whereas overexpression of CIPK11 in di19-3 mutant background, expression levels of those marker genes were not significantly altered. Taken together, our results demonstrate that CIPK11 partly mediates the drought stress response by regulating the transcription factor Di19-3.

Highlights

Osmotic stress that is imposed by soil salinity and drought is the main environmental problems around the world, which could lead toward extensive production losses in agriculture
Based on the microarray data from the AtGenExpress Visualization Tool, the CIPK11 transcripts were upregulated 3.0 folds in rosette after treatment with drought for 0.5 h and 3.24 folds in rosette after treatment with drought for 1 h (Figure S1)
The quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay showed that the CIPK11 transcripts were up regulated 1.75 folds in rosette leaves under drought stress treatment for seven days in wild-type plants (Col-0), which is consistent with the microarray data (Figure S2)

Summary

Introduction

Osmotic stress that is imposed by soil salinity and drought is the main environmental problems around the world, which could lead toward extensive production losses in agriculture. Understanding how plants sense stress signals and adapt to adverse environments is critical in improving stress resistance in crops to achieve agricultural sustainability [1]. The primary signal for plant cells is related to osmotic stress [1]. Hundreds of genes that are involved in plant responses to drought stress have been identified, some are related to stress signal perception [2,3] and some are related to signal transduction and adaption [4,5]. Plants recruit positive and negative regulators of drought stress for fine-tuning the balance between the growth and stress responses. Some key components, including both negative and positive regulators, have been identified to be involved in plant responses to abiotic stresses

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Results

Conclusion