Synergistic Activation ofRD29AVia Integration of Salinity Stress and Abscisic Acid inArabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Plants perceive information from the surroundings and elicit appropriate molecular responses. How plants dynamically respond to combinations of external inputs is yet to be revealed, despite the detailed current knowledge of intracellular signaling pathways. We measured dynamics of Response-to-Dehydration 29A (RD29A) expression induced by single or combined NaCl and ABA treatments in Arabidopsis thaliana. RD29A expression in response to a combination of NaCl and ABA leads to unique dynamic behavior that cannot be explained by the sum of responses to individual NaCl and ABA. To explore the potential mechanisms responsible for the observed synergistic response, we developed a mathematical model of the DREB2 and AREB pathways based on existing knowledge, where NaCl and ABA act as the cognate inputs, respectively, and examined various system structures with cross-input modulation, where non-cognate input affects expression of the genes involved in adjacent signaling pathways. The results from the analysis of system structures, combined with the insights from microarray expression profiles and model-guided experiments, predicted that synergistic activation of RD29A originates from enhancement of DREB2 activity by ABA. Our analysis of RD29A expression profiles demonstrates that a simple mathematical model can be used to extract information from temporal dynamics induced by combinatorial stimuli and produce experimentally testable hypotheses.

The ERF transcription factor family in cassava: genome-wide characterization and expression analyses against drought stress

“…1). Accumulating evidence revealed that most of these homologous genes in Arabidopsis regulate salt and dehydration tolerances through activation of ABA-responsive network and stress-responsive genes4647484950. These evidences suggested that these MeERFs might be positively involved in drought and salt tolerances of cassava.…”

PsCor413pm2, a Plasma Membrane-Localized, Cold-Regulated Protein from Phlox subulata, Confers Low Temperature Tolerance in Arabidopsis

“…Reports have shown that AtCor15 is a chloroplast stromal protein that protects chloroplast membranes during freezing stress [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Further, AtCor78 , also known as AtRD29A (responsive to dehydration, RD), is involved in the response to cold, dehydration, and salt stressors [ 17 , 18 , 19 ].…”

The Application of a Commercially Available Citrus-Based Extract Mitigates Moderate NaCl-Stress in Arabidopsis thaliana Plants

“…RD29A and its homologue, RD29B, code for enzymes unlikely to be directly involved in a protectory role in abiotic stress although their exact functions are still unknown [42]. Transcript abundance of RD29A is the highest approximately 2 h after salt treatment [16]. In our results, NaCl treatment did not induce the expression of RD29A (Figure 7).…”