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PMID: 18945933 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Transcriptional modulation of ethylene response factor protein JERF3 in the oxidative stress response enhances tolerance of tobacco seedlings to salt, drought, and freezing.

Plant physiology ·Vol. 148 ·No. 4 ·2008-12-00 ·Pages 1953-63

Wu L, Zhang Z, Zhang H, Wang XC, Huang R

Abstract

Abiotic stresses such as drought, cold, and salinity affect normal growth and development in plants. The production and accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) cause oxidative stress under these abiotic conditions. Recent research has elucidated the significant role of ethylene response factor (ERF) proteins in plant adaptation to abiotic stresses. Our earlier functional analysis of an ERF protein, JERF3, indicated that JERF3-expressing tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) adapts better to salinity in vitro. This article extends that study by showing that transcriptional regulation of JERF3 in the oxidative stress response modulates the increased tolerance to abiotic stresses. First, we confirm that JERF3-expressing tobacco enhances adaptation to drought, freezing, and osmotic stress during germination and seedling development. Then we demonstrate that JERF3-expressing tobacco imparts not only higher expression of osmotic stress genes compared to wild-type tobacco, but also the activation of photosynthetic carbon assimilation/metabolism and oxidative genes. More importantly, this regulation of the expression of oxidative genes subsequently enhances the activities of superoxide dismutase but reduces the content of ROS in tobacco under drought, cold, salt, and abscisic acid treatments. This indicates that JERF3 also modulates the abiotic stress response via the regulation of the oxidative stress response. Further assays indicate that JERF3 activates the expression of reporter genes driven by the osmotic-responsive GCC box, DRE, and CE1 and by oxidative-responsive as-1 in transient assays, suggesting the transcriptional activation of JERF3 in the expression of genes involved in response to oxidative and osmotic stress. Our results therefore establish that JERF3 activates the expression of such genes through transcription, resulting in decreased accumulation of ROS and, in turn, enhanced adaptation to drought, freezing, and salt in tobacco.

MeSH Terms
Adaptation, Biological/genetics Amitrole/pharmacology Freezing Gene Expression Regulation, Plant Germination Hydrogen Peroxide/pharmacology Lycopersicon esculentum/drug effects,genetics Osmotic Pressure Oxidative Stress Paraquat/pharmacology Plant Proteins/genetics,metabolism,physiology Plant Roots/genetics,growth & development,metabolism Reactive Oxygen Species/metabolism Seeds/genetics,growth & development,metabolism Sodium Chloride/metabolism Superoxide Dismutase/metabolism Tobacco/drug effects,genetics,physiology Transcription Factors/genetics,metabolism,physiology Transcription, Genetic Water/metabolism
Chemicals
Plant Proteins Reactive Oxygen Species Transcription Factors Water Sodium Chloride Hydrogen Peroxide Superoxide Dismutase Paraquat Amitrole
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Wu Lijun
Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
Zhang Zhijin
Zhang Haiwen
Wang Xue-Chen
Huang Rongfeng
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Article Info
Journal
Plant physiology
Abbr.
Plant Physiol
ISSN
0032-0889
DOI
10.1104/pp.108.126813
Published
2008-12-00
Epub
2008-00-22
Pages
1953-63
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0401224
PMCID
PMC2593663
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1104/pp.108.126813 PMC Full Text View journal details
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