No abstract

Poplar is one of the main urban and rural greening and shade tree species in the northern hemisphere, but its growth and development is always restricted by salt stress. R2R3-MYB transcription factor family is commonly involved in many biological processes during plant growth and stress endurance. In this study, PagMYB151 (Potri.014G035100) one of R2R3-MYB members related to salt stress and expressed in both nucleus and cell membrane was cloned from Populus alba × P. glandulosa to perfect the salt tolerance mechanism. Morphological and physiological indexes regulated by PagMYB151 were detected using the PagMYB151 overexpression (OX) and RNA interference (RNAi) transgenic poplar lines. Under salt stress conditions, compared with RNAi and the non-transgenic wild-type (WT) plants, the plant height, both aboveground and underground part fresh weight of OX was significantly increased. In addition, OX has a longer and finer root structure and a larger root surface area. The root activity of OX was also enhanced, which was significantly different from RNAi but not from WT under salt treatment. Under normal conditions, the stomatal aperture of OX was larger than WT, whereas this phenotype was not obvious after salt stress treatment. In terms of physiological indices, OX enhanced the accumulation of proline but reduced the toxicity of malondialdehyde to plants under salt stress. Combing with the transcriptome sequencing data, 6 transcription factors induced by salt stress and co-expressed with PagMYB151 were identified that may cooperate with PagMYB151 to function in salt stress responding process. This study provides a basis for further exploring the molecular mechanism of poplar PagMYB151 transcription factor under abiotic stress.

Drought is one of the main environmental factors limiting plant growth and development. The AP2/ERF transcription factor (TF) ERF194 play key roles in poplar growth and drought-stress tolerance. However, the physiological mechanism remains to be explored. In this study, the ERF194-overexpression (OX), suppressed-expression (RNA interference, RNAi), and non-transgenic (WT) poplar clone 717 were used to study the physiology role of ERF194 transcription factor in poplar growth and drought tolerance. Morphological and physiological methods were used to systematically analyze the growth status, antioxidant enzyme activity, malondialdehyde (MDA), soluble sugars, starch, and non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) contents of poplar. Results showed that, compared with WT, OX plants had decrease in plant height, internode length, and leaf area and increased number of fine roots under drought stress. In addition, OX had higher water potential, activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD), contents of chlorophyll, soluble sugar, starch, and NSC, implying that ERF194 positively regulates drought tolerance in poplar. The growth status of RNAi was similar to those of WT, but the relative water content and CAT activity of RNAi were lower than those of WT under drought treatment. Based on the transcriptome data, functional annotation and expression pattern analysis of differentially expressed genes were performed and further confirmed by RT-qPCR analysis. Gene ontology (GO) enrichment and gene expression pattern analysis indicated that overexpression of ERF194 upregulated the expression of oxidoreductases and metabolism-related genes such as POD and SOD. Detection of cis-acting elements in the promoters suggested that ERF194 may bind to these genes through MeJA-responsive elements, ABA-responsive elements, or elements involved in defense and stress responses. The above results show that ERF194 improved tolerance to drought stress in poplar by regulating its growth and physiological factors. This study provides a new idea for the role of ERF194 transcription factor in plant growth and drought-stress response.