Isolation and molecular characterization of the Triticum aestivum L. ethylene-responsive factor 1 (TaERF1) that increases multiple stress tolerance

Abstract

ERF transcription factors play important roles in regulating gene expression under abiotic and biotic stresses. The first member of the ERF gene family in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was isolated by screening a drought-induced cDNA library and designated as T. aestivum ethylene-responsive factor 1 (TaERF1), which encoded a putative protein of 355 amino acids with a conserved DNA-binding domain and a conserved N-terminal motif (MCGGAIL). The TaERF1 gene was located on chromosome 7A. Protein interaction assays indicated that TaERF1, with a putative phosphorylation site (TPDITS) in the C-terminal region, was a potential phosphorylation substrate for TaMAPK1 protein kinase. Deletion of the N-terminal motif enhanced the interaction of TaERF1 with TaMAPK1. The predicted TaERF1 protein contained three putative nuclear localization signals (NLSs), and three NLSs modulated synergistically the activity of subcellular localization. As a trans-acting factor, TaERF1 was capable of binding to the GCC-box and CRT/DRE elements in vitro, and of trans-activating reporter gene expression in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) leaves. Transcription of the TaERF1 gene was induced not only by drought, salinity and low-temperature stresses and exogenous ABA, ethylene and salicylic acid, but also by infection with Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici. Furthermore, overexpression of TaERF1 activated stress-related genes, including PR and COR/RD genes, under normal growth conditions, and improved pathogen and abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic plants. These results suggested that the TaERF1 gene encodes a GCC-box and CRT/DRE element binding factor that might be involved in multiple stress signal transduction pathways.

Group VII Ethylene Response Factors Coordinate Oxygen and Nitric Oxide Signal Transduction and Stress Responses in Plants

“…ERFVIIs have previously been shown to associate with a range of promoter DNA motifs, including GCC boxes (Büttner and Singh, 1997;Zhang et al, 2004;Gibbs et al, 2014b) and the ATCTA sequence (Welsch et al, 2007), suggesting they have diverse gene targets. Furthermore, there is evidence that posttranslational phosphorylation by kinases might affect ERFVII activity (Cheong et al, 2003;Xu et al, 2007). Combined with these previous reports, recent studies indicate that ERFVIIs function as promiscuous transcription factors, providing mechanistic insight into how they regulate diverse signal-and contextspecific responses.…”

“…ERF-VII genes are up-regulated in response to phytohormones and stresses, including ethylene, ABA, sodium chloride, salicylic acid, cold and heat, drought, and osmotic stress (Yi et al, 2004;Jung et al, 2007;Xu et al, 2007;Zhang et al, 2009Zhang et al, , 2010Park et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2012;Zhu et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2014). Pathogen infection was shown to increase expression of RAP2.2 in Arabidopsis in response to Botrytis cinerea (Zhao et al, 2012), BENZOTHIADIAZOLE (bth)-INDUCED ERF1 (OsBIERF1) and OsBIERF4 in rice in response to Magnaporthe grisea (Cao et al, 2006), PATHOGEN FREEZING TOLERANCE PROTEIN1 (CaPF1) in Capsicum annuum in response to Xanthomonas axonopodis (Yi et al, 2004), GmERF3 in soybean (Glycine max) in response to soybean mosaic virus , and wheat (Triticum aestivum) TaERF1 in response to infection with Blumeria graminis (Xu et al, 2007). Ectopic expression of ERFVIIs in transgenic plants increased cross tolerance to multiple stresses.…”

“…Expression of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) JASMONATE AND ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR1 in tobacco and rice led to increased tolerance to salt and drought (Zhang et al, 2004(Zhang et al, , 2010, and in rice, resistance to Rhizoctonia solani (Pan et al, 2014). Ectopic expression of TaERF1 and barley ROOT ABUNDANT FACTOR in Arabidopsis led to increased tolerance, respectively, to salt, drought, cold, B. cinerea, and R. solanacearum (Jung et al, 2007;Xu et al, 2007). Transgenic tobacco expressing the Jatropha curcas ERFVII JcERF1 showed increased salt tolerance (Yang et al, 2014).…”

“…In fact, transcripts for SUB1A and several other ERFVIIs increase in response to MV treatment (Jung et al, 2007;Fukao et al, 2011;Park et al, 2011). In addition, in several cases, overexpression of ERFVIIs from a variety of species resulted in increased expression of pathogenesisrelated genes, many of which contain GCC boxes in their promoters, suggesting the mechanism through which ERFVIIs may increase tolerance to pathogens (Yi et al, 2004;Ogawa et al, 2005;Jung et al, 2007;Xu et al, 2007;Zhang et al, 2009).…”

Comparative analysis of seed transcriptomes of ambient ozone-fumigated 2 different rice cultivars

“…40 TaERF1 is induced by drought, salinity, low temperature, exogenous ABA, ET and salicylic acid (SA) treatments, and pathogen infection, is phosphorylated in nucleus by TaMAPK1, activates stress-related genes, and then improves biotic and abiotic stress-tolerance. 41 Moreover, 1 gene encoding OsDREB2D was upregulated in Takanari. This gene has 54.07% similarity to coffee ERF1, which activates defense genes during biotic or environmental stresses.…”