Abstract
Among abiotic stressors, drought and salinity seriously affect crop growth worldwide. In plants, research has aimed to increase stress-responsive protein synthesis upstream or downstream of the various transcription factors (TFs) that alleviate drought and salinity stress. TFs play diverse roles in controlling gene expression in plants, which is necessary to regulate biological processes, such as development and environmental stress responses. In general, plant responses to different stress conditions may be either abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent or ABA-independent. A detailed understanding of how TF pathways and ABA interact to cause stress responses is essential to improve tolerance to drought and salinity stress. Despite previous progress, more active approaches based on TFs are the current focus. Therefore, the present review emphasizes the recent advancements in complex cascades of gene expression during drought and salinity responses, especially identifying the specificity and crosstalk in ABA-dependent and -independent signaling pathways. This review also highlights the transcriptional regulation of gene expression governed by various key TF pathways, including AP2/ERF, bHLH, bZIP, DREB, GATA, HD-Zip, Homeo-box, MADS-box, MYB, NAC, Tri-helix, WHIRLY, WOX, WRKY, YABBY, and zinc finger, operating in ABA-dependent and -independent signaling pathways.
Highlights
Being sessile, plants are susceptible to various adverse environmental conditions.Plants inherently live in harsh conditions [1], and the natural environment of plants comprises abiotic and biotic stressors [2]
Dehydration-responsive element binding genes (DREBs) are essential plant transcription factors (TFs) that control the expression of numerous stress-inducible genes, usually in an abscisic acid (ABA)-independent manner, and perform a critical role in improving drought and salinity stress tolerance in plants by interacting with a DRE/CRT cis-element present in the promoter region of various genes [71]
ONAC022 gene was localized in the nucleus, modulating an ABA-mediated pathway, and a higher survival ratio and less Na+ accumulation were observed in roots and shoots in response to drought and salt stress [115]
Summary
Plants are susceptible to various adverse environmental conditions. Plants inherently live in harsh conditions [1], and the natural environment of plants comprises abiotic and biotic stressors [2]. ABAZip, MADS-box, MYB, WRKY, YABBY, and zinc finger These regulators control salinity stress tolerance through ABAindependent, independent, -responsive, and -mediated pathways, among others, playing an essential role in ROS, chlorophyll content, MDA, POD, SOD, SOD, CAT, CAT,UV. Zmhdz10-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants conferred salt and drought stress functions as a transcription regulator that controls responsive gene expression with abiotic stress through the ABA-dependent pathway [66]. Dehydration-responsive element binding genes (DREBs) are essential plant TFs that control the expression of numerous stress-inducible genes, usually in an ABA-independent manner, and perform a critical role in improving drought and salinity stress tolerance in plants by interacting with a DRE/CRT cis-element present in the promoter region of various genes [71]. The rice OsGATA16 gene expressed in guard cells and all other plant tissues was induced by ABA treatment but suppressed by drought, cytokinin, and jasmonic acid treatments [76]
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