Yu Yanwen, Yang Dexin, Zhou Shirong, Gu Juntao, Wang Fengru, Dong Jingao, Huang Rongfeng
College of Life Sciences, Agricultural University of Hebei, Baoding, 071001, China.
Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China.
Protoplasma. 2017 Jan;254(1):401-408. doi: 10.1007/s00709-016-0960-4. Epub 2016 Apr 4.
Drought is an important factor limiting plant development and crop production. Dissecting the factors involved in this process is the key for enhancement of plant tolerance to drought stress by genetic approach. Here, we evaluated the regulatory function of a novel rice ethylene response factor (ERF) OsERF109 in drought stress. Expression of OsERF109 was rapidly induced by stress and phytohormones. Subcellular localization and transactivation assay demonstrated that OsERF109 was localized in nucleus and possessed transactivation activity. Transgenic plants overexpressing (OE) and knockdown with RNA interfering (RI) OsERF109 exhibited significantly reduced and improved drought resistance, respectively, indicating that OsERF109 negatively regulates drought resistance in rice. Furthermore, measurement by gas chromatography showed that ethylene contents were less in OE while more in RI lines than these in wild types, supporting the data of drought tolerance and water loss in transgenic lines. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis also proved the regulation of OsERF109 in the expression of OSACS6, OSACO2, and OsERF3, which have been identified to play important roles in ethylene biosynthesis. Based on these results, our data evidence that OsERF109 regulates drought resistance by affecting the ethylene biosynthesis in rice. Overall, our study reveals the negative role of OsERF109 in ethylene biosynthesis and drought tolerance in rice.
干旱是限制植物生长发育和作物产量的重要因素。剖析这一过程中涉及的因素是通过遗传方法提高植物耐旱性的关键。在此，我们评估了一种新型水稻乙烯反应因子（ERF）OsERF109在干旱胁迫中的调控功能。OsERF109的表达受胁迫和植物激素快速诱导。亚细胞定位和反式激活分析表明，OsERF109定位于细胞核并具有反式激活活性。过表达（OE）和RNA干扰（RI）敲低OsERF109的转基因植株分别表现出显著降低和提高的抗旱性，表明OsERF109对水稻的抗旱性起负调控作用。此外，气相色谱测量显示，OE系中的乙烯含量低于野生型，而RI系中的乙烯含量高于野生型，这支持了转基因系耐旱性和水分损失的数据。定量实时PCR分析也证明了OsERF109对已确定在乙烯生物合成中起重要作用的OSACS6、OSACO2和OsERF3表达的调控。基于这些结果，我们的数据证明OsERF109通过影响水稻中的乙烯生物合成来调控抗旱性。总体而言，我们的研究揭示了OsERF109在水稻乙烯生物合成和耐旱性中的负作用。
