Chen Jiacai, Chen Guangxin, Guo Jingyu, He Yuting, Liu Liu, Wang Shaoyun, Gu Chaoheng, Han Lijie, Li Min, Song Weiyuan, Wang Liming, Zhang Xiaolan, Zhao Jianyu
Beijing Key Laboratory of Growth and Developmental Regulation for Protected Vegetable Crops, Department of Vegetable Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
Hortic Res. 2024 Oct 2;12(1):uhae279. doi: 10.1093/hr/uhae279. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Drought stress and lateral branches are both important factors affecting crop yield. Cucumber is a widely planted vegetable crop that requires a large amount of water during its production and varieties with few lateral branches are preferred. However, the mechanisms regulating cucumber drought tolerance and lateral branch development remain largely unclear. The MADS-box transcription factor () was recently found to be a key positive regulator in cucumber shoot branching acting by stimulating abscisic acid (ABA) catabolism. In this study, we demonstrated that cucumber TCP interactor containing EAR motif protein 1 (CsTIE1) directly interacts with CsAGL16 at protein level and promotes lateral branch outgrowth through the CsAGL16- mediated ABA pathway in cucumber. Additionally, mutation of resulted in decreased drought tolerance, while overexpression of significantly enhanced drought tolerance in cucumber. Similarly, the drought resistance of mutants was significantly reduced. However, overexpression of can enhance the drought tolerance of mutants and promote their lateral branch outgrowth. These results indicated that the CsTIE1-CsAGL16 module was crucial for both lateral branch development and drought response, providing a strategy for cultivating drought-tolerant cucumber varieties with appropriate branch outgrowth.
干旱胁迫和侧枝都是影响作物产量的重要因素。黄瓜是一种广泛种植的蔬菜作物，其生产过程中需要大量水分，人们更倾向于选择侧枝较少的品种。然而，调控黄瓜耐旱性和侧枝发育的机制在很大程度上仍不清楚。最近发现，MADS盒转录因子（）是黄瓜茎分枝的关键正向调节因子，通过刺激脱落酸（ABA）分解代谢发挥作用。在本研究中，我们证明了黄瓜含EAR基序蛋白1的TCP相互作用因子（CsTIE1）在蛋白质水平上直接与CsAGL16相互作用，并通过CsAGL16介导的ABA途径促进黄瓜侧枝生长。此外，的突变导致耐旱性降低，而的过表达显著增强了黄瓜的耐旱性。同样，突变体的抗旱性显著降低。然而，的过表达可以增强突变体的耐旱性并促进其侧枝生长。这些结果表明，CsTIE1-CsAGL16模块对侧枝发育和干旱响应都至关重要，为培育具有适当侧枝生长的耐旱黄瓜品种提供了一种策略。
