1. Low Mannitol Concentrations in Arabidopsis thaliana Expressing Ectocarpus Genes Improve Salt Tolerance
- Author
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Fabrice Berrué, Tudor Borza, Yanhui Liu, Joseph P. M. Hui, Thierry Tonon, Yuan Qin, Balakrishnan Prithiviraj, Pramod Kumar Rathor, Agnès Groisillier, Sophia L. Stone, Svetlana N. Yurgel, Junzeng Zhang, and Philippe Potin
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,0301 basic medicine ,Ectocarpus sp ,Arabidopsis thaliana ,mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase ,Plant Science ,Genetically modified crops ,Biology ,01 natural sciences ,Article ,Transcriptome ,03 medical and health sciences ,mannitol-1-phosphatase ,mannitol biosynthesis genes ,medicine ,abiotic stress tolerance ,Secondary metabolism ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,salt stress ,Ecology ,Abiotic stress ,digestive, oral, and skin physiology ,fungi ,Botany ,food and beverages ,Ectocarpus ,biology.organism_classification ,030104 developmental biology ,Ion homeostasis ,Biochemistry ,QK1-989 ,Mannitol ,010606 plant biology & botany ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Mannitol is abundant in a wide range of organisms, playing important roles in biotic and abiotic stress responses. Nonetheless, mannitol is not produced by a vast majority of plants, including many important crop plants. Mannitol-producing transgenic plants displayed improved tolerance to salt stresses though mannitol production was rather low, in the µ, M range, compared to mM range found in plants that innately produce mannitol. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance triggered by low concentrations of mannitol. Reported here is the production of mannitol in Arabidopsis thaliana, by expressing two mannitol biosynthesis genes from the brown alga Ectocarpus sp. strain Ec32. To date, no brown algal genes have been successfully expressed in land plants. Expression of mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase and mannitol-1-phosphatase genes was associated with the production of 42.3&ndash, 52.7 nmol g&minus, 1 fresh weight of mannitol, which was sufficient to impart salinity and temperature stress tolerance. Transcriptomics revealed significant differences in the expression of numerous genes, in standard and salinity stress conditions, including genes involved in K+ homeostasis, ROS signaling, plant development, photosynthesis, ABA signaling and secondary metabolism. These results suggest that the improved tolerance to salinity stress observed in transgenic plants producing mannitol in µ, M range is achieved by the activation of a significant number of genes, many of which are involved in priming and modulating the expression of genes involved in a variety of functions including hormone signaling, osmotic and oxidative stress, and ion homeostasis.
- Published
- 2020