Melatonin has emerged as a research highlight regarding its important role in regulating plant growth and the adaptation to the environmental stresses. In this study, we investigated how melatonin prevented the cadmium toxicity to wheat seedlings. The results demonstrated that cadmium induced the expression of melatonin biosynthesis-related genes and cause a significant increase of endogenous melatonin level. Melatonin treatment drastically alleviated the cadmium toxicity, resulting in increased plant height, biomass accumulation, and root growth. Cadmium and senescence treatment significantly increased the endogenous level of hydrogen peroxide, which was strictly counterbalanced by melatonin. Furthermore, melatonin treatment caused a significant increase of GSH (reduced glutathione) content and the GSH/GSSG (oxidized glutathione) ratio. The activities of two key antioxidant enzymes, ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), but not catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD), were specifically improved by melatonin. Additionally, melatonin not only promoted the primary root growth, but also drastically enhanced the capacity of the seedling roots to degrade the exogenous hydrogen peroxide. These results suggested that melatonin played a key role in maintaining the hydrogen peroxide homeostasis, via regulation of the antioxidant systems. Conclusively, this study revealed a crucial protective role of melatonin in the regulation of cadmium resistance in wheat.

Karrikins are reported to stimulate seed germination, regulate seedling growth, and increase the seedling vigor in abiotic stress conditions in plants. Nevertheless, how karrikins alleviate abiotic stress remains largely elusive. In this study, we found that karrikin (KAR 1 ) could significantly alleviate both drought and salt stress in the important oil plant Sapium sebiferum. KAR 1 supplementation in growth medium at a nanomolar (nM) concentration was enough to recover seed germination under salt and osmotic stress conditions. One nanomolar of KAR 1 improved seedling biomass, increased the taproot length, and increased the number of lateral roots under abiotic stresses, suggesting that KAR 1 is a potent alleviator of abiotic stresses in plants. Under abiotic stresses, KAR 1 -treated seedlings had a higher activity of the key antioxidative enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase, in comparison with the control, which leads to a lower level of hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde, and electrolyte leakage. Moreover, the metabolome analysis showed that KAR 1 treatment significantly increased the level of organic acids and amino acids, which played important roles in redox homeostasis under stresses, suggesting that karrikins might alleviate abiotic stresses via the regulation of redox homeostasis. Under abiotic stresses, applications of karrikins did not increase the endogenous abscisic acid level but altered the expression of several ABA signaling genes, such as SNF1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE2.3, SNF1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE2.6, ABI3, and ABI5, suggesting potential interactions between karrikins and ABA signaling in the stress responses. Conclusively, we not only provided the physiological and molecular evidence to clarify the mechanism of karrikins in the regulation of stress adaptation in S. sebiferum but also showed the potential value of karrikins in agricultural practices, which will lay a foundation for further studies about the role of karrikins in abiotic stress alleviation in plants.

APYRASEs, which directly regulate intra- and extra-cellular ATP homeostasis, play a pivotal role in the regulation of various stress adaptations in mammals, bacteria and plants. In the present study, we identified and characterized wheat APYRASE family members at the genomic level in wheat. The results identified a total of nine APY homologs with conserved ACR domains. The sequence alignments, phylogenetic relations and conserved motifs of wheat APYs were bioinformatically analyzed. Although they share highly conserved secondary and tertiary structures, the wheat APYs could be mainly categorized into three groups, according to phylogenetic and structural analysis. Additionally, these APYs exhibited similar expression patterns in the root and shoot, among which TaAPY3-1, TaAPY3-3 and TaAPY3-4 had the highest expression levels. The time-course expression patterns of the eight APYs in response to biotic and abiotic stress in the wheat seedlings were also investigated. TaAPY3-2, TaAPY3-3, TaAPY3-4 and TaAPY6 exhibited strong sensitivity to all kinds of stresses in the leaves. Some APYs showed specific expression responses, such as TaAPY6 to heavy metal stress, and TaAPY7 to heat and salt stress. These results suggest that the stress-inducible APYs could have potential roles in the regulation of environmental stress adaptations. Moreover, the catalytic activity of TaAPY3-1 was further analyzed in the in vitro system. The results showed that TaAPY3-1 protein exhibited high catalytic activity in the degradation of ATP and ADP, but with low activity in degradation of TTP and GTP. It also has an extensive range of temperature adaptability, but preferred relatively acidic pH conditions. In this study, the genome-wide identification and characterization of APYs in wheat were suggested to be useful for further genetic modifications in the generation of high-stress-tolerant wheat cultivars.