Transcriptome Analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana Plants Treated with a New Compound Natolen128, Enhancing Salt Stress Tolerance.

Kaori Sako,Ayato Sato,Maho Tanaka,Motoaki Seki,Akihiro Matsui,Chien Van Ha

doi:10.3390/plants10050978

Abstract

Salinity stress is a major threat to agriculture and global food security. Chemical priming is a promising approach to improving salinity stress tolerance in plants. To identify small molecules with the capacity to enhance salinity stress tolerance in plants, chemical screening was performed using Arabidopsis thaliana. We screened 6400 compounds from the Nagoya University Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecule (ITbM) chemical library and identified one compound, Natolen128, that enhanced salinity-stress tolerance. Furthermore, we isolated a negative compound of Natolen128, namely Necolen124, that did not enhance salinity stress tolerance, though it has a similar chemical structure to Natolen128. We conducted a transcriptomic analysis of Natolen128 and Necolen124 to investigate how Natolen128 enhances high-salinity stress tolerance. Our data indicated that the expression levels of 330 genes were upregulated by Natolen128 treatment compared with that of Necolen124. Treatment with Natolen128 increased expression of hypoxia-responsive genes including ethylene biosynthetic enzymes and PHYTOGLOBIN, which modulate accumulation of nitric oxide (NO) level. NO was slightly increased in plants treated with Natolen128. These results suggest that Natolen128 may regulate NO accumulation and thus, improve salinity stress tolerance in A. thaliana.

Highlights

Natolen128 Was Identified as a New Compound Enhancing Salt Stress Tolerance in
We focused on N-[3-(2-oxo-1-pyrrolidinyl)phenyl]spiro[bicyclo[3.2.1]octane-8,20 -[1,3]dithiolane]-3-carboxamide (Natolen128) (Figure 1a), because it showed the strongest increase in tolerance to salinity stress
We identified a compound, Natolen128, that enhances salinity stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana by screening the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecule (ITbM) chemical library

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. More than 25% of irrigated land is affected by soil salinization worldwide [1]. High salinity stress is one of the major limiting factors of crop productivity and growth. Salt stress causes osmotic stress, ionic stress and oxidative stress [2,3]. A high concentration of salt makes plants harder to absorb water and nutrients and an ion imbalance prevents plant growth by altering metabolic processes and reducing photosynthesis [2]. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS, respectively) are produced in plant cells. Low levels of ROS and RNS work as messengers of signal transduction [4]. Nitric oxide (NO) belonging to the RNS family modulates

Methods

Results

Conclusion