A Physic Nut Stress-Responsive HD-Zip Transcription Factor, JcHDZ07, Confers Enhanced Sensitivity to Salinity Stress in Transgenic Arabidopsis

Abstract

Homeodomain-leucine zipper (HD-Zip) transcription factors are reported to play crucial roles in the growth, development, and stress responses of plants. However, there is little knowledge of the molecular mechanisms involved in physic nut’s stress tolerance generally, or the functions of its HD-Zip genes. In the present study, a HD-Zip family transcription factor, designated JcHDZ07 , was isolated from physic nut. Expression profile analysis showed that salinity stress inhibited the expression of JcHDZ07 . Transient expression of JcHDZ07-YFP in Arabidopsis protoplast cells revealed that JcHDZ07 was a nuclear-localized protein. Additionally, no obvious difference in growth and development between wild-type and JcHDZ07 -overexpressing plants was observed in the absence of stress. Our results further indicated that JcHDZ07 overexpressing transgenic plants had lower proline contents, lower survival rates, and activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase, but higher relative electrical leakage and malonaldehyde contents compared with wild-type plants under salinity stress conditions, suggesting that overexpression of JcHDZ07 confers enhanced sensitivity to salinity stress in transgenic Arabidopsis . Expression of salt stress-responsive genes were upregulated in leaves of transgenic plants under salinity stress, but less strongly than in wild-type plants. Collectively, our results suggest that JcHDZ07 functions as an important regulator during the process of plant responses to salinity stress.

Genome-Wide Identification of the Physic Nut WUSCHEL-Related Homeobox Gene Family and Functional Analysis of the Abiotic Stress Responsive Gene JcWOX5

“…For proline content and CAT activity, the method in our previously reported paper was used to detect the activity of CAT and the content of proline (Tang et al, 2019a).…”

Transcription Factors Interact with ABA through Gene Expression and Signaling Pathways to Mitigate Drought and Salinity Stress

“…In contrast, transgenic plants had higher relative electrical leakage and malonaldehyde content than wild-type plants under salinity stress conditions but reduced survival rates, proline content, catalase, and superoxide dismutase activity [79]. Homeodomain-leucine zipper I (HD-Zip) is an essential family of TFs that play crucial roles in responding to various abiotic stressors.…”

The HD‐Zip I transcription factor MdHB7‐like confers tolerance to salinity in transgenic apple (Malus domestica)

“…Many reports indicate that HD-Zip I TFs from different plant species are involved in developmental adaptations to environmental stress (Mishra et al, 2012;Sen et al, 2017;Tang et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2012). For example, AtHB7 was upregulated in response to salt treatment (Söderman et al, 1994), and the HD-Zip I γ-clade gene MtHB1 from Medicago truncatula was shown to be regulated by salt stress (Ariel et al, 2010).…”

“…ABA, drought, and salt induced the expression of CaHDZ12 in Chickpea, which positively affects various plant physiological and biochemical parameters, and CaHDZ12 overexpression (OE) plants were better adapted to adverse environments (Sen et al, 2017). Overexpression of HD-Zip I TF JcHDZ07, isolated from physic nut, enhanced sensitivity to salinity stress in transgenic Arabidopsis (Tang et al, 2019). The HD-Zip I TF SlHB2 was cloned from tomato and used to generate SlHB2 RNA interference (RNAi) transgenic plants.…”