The transcription factors of tall fescue in response to temperature stress

Abstract

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) is an important grass species worldwide, but temperature stress severely affects its distribution and yield. Transcription factors (TFs), as the master switches in sophisticated regulatory networks, play essential roles in plant growth development and abiotic stress responses.• In this study, the comparative transcriptome analysis was performed to explore the commonalities and differences in the response of TFs to the heat (40°C), cold (10°C) and control (22°C) conditions.• A total of 877 TF genes belonging to 35 families were identified. Most of them (784) were differentially expressed genes (DEG), indicating TF genes actively responded to temperature stress. The expression of bZIP and GTF family members was up-regulated when exposed to both heat and cold, but conversely, the expression of the most WRKY and NAC families members decreased. The HSF and GTE families and DREB2B were up-regulated upon heat, while bHLH, MYB, HD-ZIP and ERF families were elevated under cold stress. The TFs involved in 'Plant hormone signal transduction', 'Plantpathogen interaction', 'Circadian rhythm' play major roles in responding to temperature stresses.• The results showed the temperature threats up-regulated the expression of stress tolerance-related genes, and down-regulated those genes associated with growth and disease resistance, indicating TFs exert crucial roles in plant adaptation to an adverse environment. This study profiled the responsive pattern of TFs to temperature stresses, partially explained the mechanism of adaptations of cold-season forage crops and screened many candidate stress-tolerant TF genes.

Overexpression of A Biotic Stress-Inducible Pvgstu Gene Activates Early Protective Responses in Tobacco under Combined Heat and Drought

“…The WRKY family is a key component of pathways, such as carbohydrate synthesis, senescence, development, and secondary metabolites synthesis and also of the plant-pathogen interaction pathway [89]. Herein, despite being mainly downregulated under increased exposure to DT stress, confirming the negative effect of temperature stress on WRKY genes expression as an energy maintenance mechanism [88], they were also present under stress-free conditions in Pvgstu3-3.4 plants, which could be related to the biotic induced nature of the Pvgstu3-3.4 gene. Other stressrelated TFs were among the top 15 TF families expressed under DT stress in Pvgstu3-3.4, such as the FAR-RED-IMPAIRED RESPONSE1 (FAR1), MADS, Trihelix, ARF, ARR-B, SBP, bZIP and Sigma70-like.…”

“…NAC TFs are also involved in both abiotic and biotic stress responses [78], and herein they were both presents in stress-free conditions and to a greater extent under DT stress. Heat shock transcription factors (HSF) exert a central regulatory role in alleviating the negative effects of not only high temperature [87,88] but also drought and salt stress [87]. The WRKY family is a key component of pathways, such as carbohydrate synthesis, senescence, development, and secondary metabolites synthesis and also of the plant-pathogen interaction pathway [89].…”

Comparative Transcriptome Analyses of Different Rheum officinale Tissues Reveal Differentially Expressed Genes Associated with Anthraquinone, Catechin, and Gallic Acid Biosynthesis

“…TFs are proteins that bind DNA in a sequence-specific manner and regulate transcription by acting as recruitment required for RNA polymerase during transcription initiation [ 16 , 48 ]. In plants, TFs can improve disease and stress resistance, mediate growth and development, affect intercellular signaling, regulate the synthesis and accumulation of secondary metabolites, as well as influence plant evolution [ 10 , 16 , 49 , 50 ]. Several studies have demonstrated that the MYB-bHLH-WD40 complex in plants can regulate the biosynthesis of flavonoids, changing the types and contents of metabolites [ 51 ].…”

Unveiling Molecular Mechanisms of Nitric Oxide-Induced Low-Temperature Tolerance in Cucumber by Transcriptome Profiling

“…Thus, identification and evaluation of TF genes related to stress tolerance are essential for understanding the mechanism of cold tolerance in cucumbers. Previous studies have reported that WRKY TFs are involved in cold tolerance in many plants, such as banana fruits, Coffea canephora , Solanum lycopersicum , Camellia sinensis, and tall fescue [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. In addition, MYB, b-ZIP, Dof, NAC, and HD-ZIP were also reported in plant response to LT, such as the BoPAP1 , an orthologous gene of BoMYB1 , was induced by LT and subsequently activated a subset of anthocyanin structural genes [ 26 ], NAC, MYB, b-ZIP have been reported in response to LT stress in tall fescue [ 45 ], HD-ZIP has been shown playing an important role in mediating the resistance to various abiotic stresses [ 27 ], and Dof is up-regulated in response to cold stress in grapevine [ 48 ].…”