Chen Qian, Zheng Yan, Luo Landi, Yang Yongping, Hu Xiangyang, Kong Xiangxiang
Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China.
Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2018 Jan 1;495(1):1102-1107. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2017.11.149. Epub 2017 Nov 24.
Flowering at the right time is important for the reproductive success of plants and their response to environmental stress. In Arabidopsis, a major determinant of natural variation in flowering time is FRIGIDA (FRI). In the present study, we show that overexpression of the functional FRIGIDA gene in wild-type Col background (ColFRI) positively enhances the drought tolerance by activating P5CS1 expression and promoting proline accumulation during water stress. Furthermore, no significant changes in FRI gene and protein expression levels were observed with drought treatment, whereas P5CS1 protein expression significantly increased. In contrast, vernalization treatment efficiently reduced P5CS1 expression levels and resulted in a decrease in drought tolerance in the ColFRI plants. The flc mutants with a functional FRI background also relieved FRI-mediated activation of P5CS1 during drought tolerance. Taken together, our findings reveal the novel function of FRI in enhancing drought resistance through its downstream P5CS1 pathway during water-deficit stress, which is dependent on its target, the FLC gene.
在合适的时间开花对于植物的繁殖成功及其对环境胁迫的反应至关重要。在拟南芥中，开花时间自然变异的一个主要决定因素是FRIGIDA（FRI）。在本研究中，我们表明在野生型Col背景（ColFRI）中功能性FRIGIDA基因的过表达通过激活P5CS1表达和在水分胁迫期间促进脯氨酸积累来正向增强耐旱性。此外，干旱处理未观察到FRI基因和蛋白质表达水平有显著变化，而P5CS1蛋白质表达显著增加。相反，春化处理有效地降低了P5CS1表达水平，并导致ColFRI植物耐旱性下降。具有功能性FRI背景的flc突变体在耐旱性期间也减轻了FRI介导的P5CS1激活。综上所述，我们的研究结果揭示了FRI在水分亏缺胁迫期间通过其下游P5CS1途径增强抗旱性的新功能，这取决于其靶标FLC基因。
