Aquaporins in Cereals—Important Players in Maintaining Cell Homeostasis under Abiotic Stress

Abstract

Cereal productivity is reduced by environmental stresses such as drought, heat, elevated CO2, salinity, metal toxicity and cold. Sometimes, plants are exposed to multiple stresses simultaneously. Plants must be able to make a rapid and adequate response to these environmental stimuli in order to restore their growing ability. The latest research has shown that aquaporins are important players in maintaining cell homeostasis under abiotic stress. Aquaporins are membrane intrinsic proteins (MIP) that form pores in the cellular membranes, which facilitate the movement of water and many other molecules such as ammonia, urea, CO2, micronutrients (silicon and boron), glycerol and reactive oxygen species (hydrogen peroxide) across the cell and intercellular compartments. The present review primarily focuses on the diversity of aquaporins in cereal species, their cellular and subcellular localisation, their expression and their functioning under abiotic stresses. Lastly, this review discusses the potential use of mutants and plants that overexpress the aquaporin-encoding genes to improve their tolerance to abiotic stress.

Integrative Approach for Precise Genotyping and Transcriptomics of Salt Tolerant Introgression Rice Lines

“…Genes identified in indica regions of IL22 were arbitrarily selected and their expression analyzed by RT-qPCR analysis. They included genes encoding proteins involved in salt stress tolerance (i.e., TF DREB2A, K + efflux 5 transporter, tonoplast intrinsic protein TIP1;1, and Calcineurin B-Like Protein-Interacting Protein Kinase 9-CIPK9) (Liu et al, 1994;Dubouzet et al, 2003;Li et al, 2008;Mallikarjuna et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2018;Kurowska, 2021;Shabala et al, 2021). RT-qPCR analysis confirmed that indica genes are expressed in leaves of IL22 plants, and also revealed differences in the expression level of these genes between IL22 and its salt-tolerant indica parent FL478 when grown under control conditions (Figure 5, gray bars).…”

Tomato leaves under stress: a comparison of stress response to mild abiotic stress between a cultivated and a wild tomato species

“… 2016 ; Kapilan et al. 2018 ; Kurowska 2021 ) and future studies may investigate their role in tomato’s response to warm temperature.…”

Tomato leaves under stress: A comparison of stress response to mild abiotic stress between a cultivated and a wild tomato species

“…With the help of the weighted cluster analysis we identified three additional genes belonging to the solute transport category: Solyc03g019820.3.1 and Solyc06g072130.4.1 are tonoplast intrisic proteins, that are involved in transport of water and small molecules across the vacuolar membrane, and Solyc06g051860.3.1 is a PHT1-type phosphate transporter. Aquaporins are known to play an important role in maintaining cell homeostasis under abiotic Stress (Afzal et al, 2016; Kapilan et al, 2018; Kurowska, 2021) and future studies may investigate their role in tomato’s response to warm temperature.…”