Jeon Sung Won, Kim Yi Rae, Han Jung Yeon, Jeong Ukhan, Cheong Eun Ju, Choi Yong Eui
Division of Forest Sciences, College of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, Republic of Korea.
Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Apr 18;26(8):3836. doi: 10.3390/ijms26083836.
plants are susceptible to high temperatures and intense sunlight, necessitating cultivation under artificially shaded structures. Identifying the genes associated with heat resistance is critical for advancing molecular breeding strategies to develop heat-tolerant ginseng varieties. Heat-shock transcription factors (HSFs) are widely recognized as key regulators of plant responses to abiotic stresses, primarily by controlling heat-shock proteins (HSPs). To identify HSF genes in , transcriptome analysis was conducted on ginseng plants subjected to heat-shock treatment (1 h at 40 °C). Among the 26 HSF unigenes annotated from the ginseng transcriptome, a unigene related to the HSFA2 family exhibited the highest transcriptional activity following heat-shock treatment. The expression of , a gene identified from this unigene, was analyzed under temperature and salt-stress conditions in ginseng plants using qPCR. The results showed that was highly responsive to various abiotic stresses, including heat, cold, salt, and intense sunlight. To assess the functional role of , transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing this gene were analyzed. The overexpression of led to an elevated expression of heat-shock proteins (HSPs) in tobacco, resulting in enhanced resistance to high temperature and salt stress. Transgenic tobacco plants exhibited significantly less reduction in chlorophyll fluorescence compared to nontransgenic controls when exposed to salt stress (200 and 400 mM NaCl) and high-temperature stress (42 °C), indicating improved stress tolerance. In conclusion, is a crucial HSF that regulates the transcriptional control of HSPs in ginseng plants. The constitutive expression of in transgenic ginseng could potentially confer improved tolerance to high temperatures, making it a valuable target for molecular breeding.
植物对高温和强光敏感，需要在人工遮荫结构下种植。鉴定与耐热性相关的基因对于推进分子育种策略以培育耐热人参品种至关重要。热休克转录因子（HSFs）被广泛认为是植物对非生物胁迫反应的关键调节因子，主要通过控制热休克蛋白（HSPs）来实现。为了鉴定人参中的HSF基因，对经热休克处理（40℃处理1小时）的人参植株进行了转录组分析。在从人参转录组注释的26个HSF单基因中，一个与HSFA2家族相关的单基因在热休克处理后表现出最高的转录活性。使用qPCR分析了从该单基因鉴定出的一个基因在人参植株温度和盐胁迫条件下的表达。结果表明，该基因对包括热、冷、盐和强光在内的各种非生物胁迫高度响应。为了评估该基因的功能作用，对过表达该基因的转基因烟草植株进行了分析。该基因的过表达导致烟草中热休克蛋白（HSPs）的表达升高，从而增强了对高温和盐胁迫的抗性。当暴露于盐胁迫（200和400 mM NaCl）和高温胁迫（42℃）时，转基因烟草植株与非转基因对照相比，叶绿素荧光的降低明显更少，表明胁迫耐受性提高。总之，该基因是调节人参植株中HSPs转录控制的关键HSF。在转基因人参中组成型表达该基因可能会赋予其对高温的耐受性提高，使其成为分子育种的有价值目标。
