No abstract

Environmental stresses are the major factors that limit productivity in plants. Here, we report on the function of an uncharacterized gene At1g07050, encoding a CCT domain-containing protein, from Arabidopsis thaliana. At1g07050 expression is highly repressed by oxidative stress. We used metabolomics, biochemical, and genomic approaches to analyse performance of transgenic lines with altered expression of At1g07050 under normal and oxidative stress conditions. At1g07050 overexpressing lines showed increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), whereas knock-out mutants exhibited decreased levels of ROS and higher tolerance to oxidative stress generated in the chloroplast. Our results uncover a role for At1g07050 in cellular redox homeostasis controlling H O levels, due to changes in enzymes, metabolites, and transcripts related to ROS detoxification. Therefore, we call this gene FITNESS. Additionally, several genes such as ACD6, PCC1, and ICS1 related to salicylic acid signalling and defence were found differentially expressed among the lines. Notably, FITNESS absence significantly improved seed yield suggesting an effective fine-tuning trade-off between reproductive success and defence responses.

Plants, as sessile organisms, are continuously threatened by multiple factors and therefore their profitable production depends on how they can defend themselves. We have previously reported on the characterization of fitness mutants which are more tolerant to environmental stresses due to the activation of defense mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate that in fitness mutants, which accumulate moderate levels of salicylic acid (SA) and have SA signaling activated, pathogen infection is restricted. Also, we demonstrate that NPR1 is essential in fitness mutants for SA storage and defense activation but not for SA synthesis after Pseudomonas syringae (Pst) infection. Additionally, these mutants do not appear to be metabolically impared, resulting in a higher seed set even after pathogen attack. The FITNESS transcriptional network includes defense-related transcription factors (TFs) such as ANAC072, ORA59, and ERF1 as well as jasmonic acid (JA) related genes including LIPOXYGENASE2 (LOX2), CORONATINE INSENSITIVE1 (COI1), JASMONATE ZIM-domain3 (JAZ3) and JAZ10. Induction of FITNESS expression leads to COI1 downregulation, and to JAZ3 and JAZ10 upregulation. As COI1 is an essential component of the bioactive JA perception apparatus and is required for most JA-signaling processes, elevated FITNESS expression leads to modulated JA-related responses. Taken together, FITNESS plays a crucial role during pathogen attack and allows a cost-efficient way to prevent undesirable developmental effects.