Encoding a MADS-box Transcription Factor Enhances the Tolerance to Aluminum Stress in .

The MADS-box transcription factors (TFs) are essential in regulating plant growth and development, and conferring abiotic and metal stress resistance. This study aims to investigate function in conferring tolerance to aluminum stress in Arabidopsis. The from the wild soybean BW69 line encodes a MADS-box transcription factor in by bioinformatics analysis. The putative GsMAS1 protein was localized in the nucleus. The gene was rich in soybean roots presenting a constitutive expression pattern and induced by aluminum stress with a concentration-time specific pattern. The analysis of phenotypic observation demonstrated that overexpression of enhanced the tolerance of Arabidopsis plants to aluminum (Al) stress with larger values of relative root length and higher proline accumulation compared to those of wild type at the AlCl treatments. The genes and/or pathways regulated by were further investigated under Al stress by qRT-PCR. The results indicated that six genes resistant to Al stress were upregulated, whereas and were significantly activated by Al stress and overexpression. After treatment of 50 μM AlCl, the RNA abundance of and went up to 17-fold and 37-fold than those in wild type, respectively. Whereas the RNA transcripts of and were much higher than those in wild type with over 82% and 67% of relative expression in transgenic plants, respectively. In short, the results suggest that may increase resistance to Al toxicity through certain pathways related to Al stress in Arabidopsis.