Summary The capability to maintain cell wall integrity is critical for plants to adapt to unfavourable conditions. l‐Arabinose (Ara) is a constituent of several cell wall polysaccharides and many cell wall‐localised glycoproteins, but so far the contribution of Ara metabolism to abiotic stress tolerance is still poorly understood. Here, we report that mutations in the MUR4 (also known as HSR8) gene, which is required for the biosynthesis of UDP‐Arap in Arabidopsis, led to reduced root elongation under high concentrations of NaCl, KCl, NaNO3, or KNO3. The short root phenotype of the mur4/hsr8 mutants under high salinity is rescued by exogenous Ara or gum arabic, a commercial product of arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) from Acacia senegal. Mutation of the MUR4 gene led to abnormal cell−cell adhesion under salt stress. MUR4 forms either a homodimer or heterodimers with its isoforms. Analysis of the higher order mutants of MUR4 with its three paralogues, MURL, DUR, MEE25, reveals that the paralogues of MUR4 also contribute to the biosynthesis of UDP‐Ara and are critical for root elongation. Taken together, our work revealed the importance of the Ara metabolism in salt stress tolerance and also provides new insights into the enzymes involved in the UDP‐Ara biosynthesis in plants.

Background Four-Coumarate:CoA ligase gene ( 4CL ) plays multiple important roles in plant growth and development by catalyzing the formation of CoA ester. 4CL belongs to the plant phenylpropane derivative, which is related to the synthesis of flavonoids and lignin and is a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway. Results In this study, 12 4CL genes of Fraxinus mandschurica were identified and named Fm4CL1 - Fm4CL12 , respectively. The analysis of the expression pattern of Fm4CL genes indicate that Fm4CL-like 1 gene may play a role in the lignin synthesis pathway. Our study indicate that overexpression of Fm4CL-like 1 increases the lignin content of transgenic tobacco by 39.5% compared to WT, and the S/G ratio of transgenic tobacco increased by 19.7% compared with WT. The xylem cell layer of transgenic line is increased by 40% compared to WT, the xylem cell wall thickness increased by 21.6% compared to the WT. Under mannitol-simulated drought stress, the root length of transgenic tobacco is 64% longer than WT, and the seed germination rate of the transgenic lines is 47% higher than that of WT. In addition, the H 2 O 2 content in the transgenic tobacco was 22% lower than that of WT, while the POD and SOD content was higher than WT by 30 and 24% respectively, which showed Fm4CL-like 1 affect the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The MDA content and relative conductivity was 25 and 15% lower than WT, respectively. The water loss rate is 16.7% lower than that of WT. The relative expression levels of stress-related genes NtHAK , NtAPX , NtCAT , NtABF2 , and NtZFP were higher than those of WT under stress treatment. The stomatal apertures of OE (Overexpression) were 30% smaller than those of WT, and the photosynthetic rate of OE was 48% higher than that of WT. These results showed that the overexpression line exhibited stronger adaptability to osmotic stress than WT. Conclusions Our results indicate that Fm4CL-like 1 is involved in secondary cell wall development and lignin synthesis. Fm4CL-like 1 play an important role in osmotic stress by affecting cell wall and stomatal development. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-019-1812-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The stability of integration and expression level of transgenes in long-term micropropagation clones of transgenic birch (Betula platyphylla Suk.) was examined. Multiplexed PCR and reverse primer PCR demonstrated stable integration of transgenes into regenerated plants. Expression levels of the bgt and gus genes among shoot plantlets, subcultured 4, 7, 9 and 15 times, were significantly different. The transcriptional expression level of extraneous genes in regenerated plants decreased with increasing subculture number. Transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) occured in regenerated transgenic lines. The silencing rate of GUS in the 5th subculture plants was 22-65%. TGS in regenerated plants could be reactivated with 5-azacytidine (Azac) at 50-200 microM. GUS and BGT protein expression was reactivated in the micropropagated transgenic birch plants when treated with Azac. A decrease in expression level with increasing number of subcultures is thus associated with DNA methylation.

Evidence supporting nitric oxide (NO) as a mediator of plant biochemistry continues to grow, but its functions at the molecular level remains poorly understood and, in some cases, controversial. To study the role of NO at the transcriptional level in Betula platyphylla cells, we conducted a genome-scale transcriptome analysis of these cells. The transcriptome of untreated birch cells and those treated by sodium nitroprusside (SNP) were analyzed using the Solexa sequencing. Data were collected by sequencing cDNA libraries of birch cells, which had a long period to adapt to the suspension culture conditions before SNP-treated cells and untreated cells were sampled. Among the 34,100 UniGenes detected, BLASTX search revealed that 20,631 genes showed significant (E-values≤10−5) sequence similarity with proteins from the NR-database. Numerous expressed sequence tags (i.e., 1374) were identified as differentially expressed between the 12 h SNP-treated cells and control cells samples: 403 up-regulated and 971 down-regulated. From this, we specifically examined a core set of NO-related transcripts. The altered expression levels of several transcripts, as determined by transcriptome analysis, was confirmed by qRT-PCR. The results of transcriptome analysis, gene expression quantification, the content of triterpenoid and activities of defensive enzymes elucidated NO has a significant effect on many processes including triterpenoid production, carbohydrate metabolism and cell wall biosynthesis.

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