Stress responsive gene regulation in relation to hydrogen sulfide in plants under abiotic stress

Abstract

Plants often face a variety of abiotic stresses, which affects them negatively and lead to yield loss. The antioxidant system efficiently removes excessive reactive oxygen species and maintains redox homeostasis in plants. With better understanding of these protective mechanisms, recently the concept of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and its role in cell signaling has become the center of attention. H2S has been recognized as a third gasotransmitter and a potent regulator of growth and development processes such as germination, maturation, senescence and defense mechanism in plants. Because of its gaseous nature, H2S can diffuse to different part of the cells and balance the antioxidant pools by supplying sulfur to cells. H2S showed tolerance against a plethora of adverse environmental conditions like drought, salt, high temperature, cold, heavy metals and flood via changing in level of osmolytes, malonaldialdehyde, Na+/K+ uptake, activities of H2S biosynthesis and antioxidative enzymes. It also promotes cross adaptation through persulfidation. H2S along with calcium, methylglyoxal and nitric oxide, and their cross talk induces the expression of mitogen activated protein kinases as well as other genes in response to stress. Therefore, it is sensible to evaluate and explore the stress responsive genes involved in H2S regulated homeostasis and stress tolerance. The current article is aimed to summarize the recent updates on H2S‐mediated gene regulation in special reference to abiotic stress tolerance mechanism, and cross adaptation in plants. Moreover, new insights into the H2S‐associated signal transduction pathway have also been explored.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) signaling in plant development and stress responses

“…As a small gaseous signaling molecule, H 2 S readily traverses the intracellular and intercellular domains, and plays a key role in regulating the homeostasis in plant cells (Papanatsiou et al 2015 ). H 2 S has been identified as a brilliant defender against different stresses such as drought, heat, chilling, heavy metals, osmotic and saline (Pandey and Gautam 2020 ) (Fig. 2 ).…”

“…H 2 S can help the plants to resist a variety of abiotic stresses such as drought, cold, heat, salinity, hypoxia and toxic metal to effectively alleviate their damages (Pandey and Gautam 2020 ; Zhang et al 2021 ), which is closely associated with the classic “rescue” mode of H 2 S. Continuous exposure to any abiotic stress will cause an imbalance of endogenous redox homeostasis. Excessive accumulations of reactive oxygen species (ROS), hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and superoxide anion (O 2 −• ), will further lead to lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation and damage to plant cells, resulting in autophagy and programmed cell death (PCD) (Da-Silva and Modolo 2018 ; Hancock 2017 ).…”

Hydrogen sulfide and nitric oxide signal integration and plant development under stressed/non‐stressed conditions

“…Rai et al (2019) have given an overview of NO and salicylic acid signaling towards acquired heat tolerance in plants. Paul and Roychoudhury (2019), Pandey and Gautam (2019) Research articles have covered diverse new roles of H 2 S and NO in regulating abiotic stress in plants. Kushwaha and Singh (2019) and Ahmad et al (2019) have reported various mechanisms through which H 2 S regulates chromium toxicity in crop plants.…”

“…Rai et al () have given an overview of NO and salicylic acid signaling towards acquired heat tolerance in plants. Paul and Roychoudhury (), Pandey and Gautam () and Singh et al (2019) have covered exhaustive current roles of H 2 S and NO in plants under changing environmental conditions. Finally, Sharma et al () and Shivaraj et al () have discussed molecular mechanisms and crosstalk of NO and H 2 S in metal stress tolerance.…”

Role of Exogenous and Endogenous Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) on Functional Traits of Plants Under Heavy Metal Stresses: A Recent Perspective

“…Upon its production, H 2 S can be highly mobile across plant membranes and can either be influxed in or effluxed out of the plant system as a way out against heavy metal stress ( Shivaraj et al, 2020 ). Plant stress adaptation against heavy metal in H 2 S-treated plant is initiated via antioxidant activities ( Kushwaha and Singh, 2019 ), accumulation of osmoregulators ( Tian et al, 2016 ), cell signaling protein ( He et al, 2019 ), and by different gene expressions ( Pandey and Gautam, 2019 ). Overall, it enables plants to combat against stress factor such as heavy metals via effective removal of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by adjusting intracellular redox balance.…”