Abstract
The halophyte Thellungiella salsuginea is a new model plants due to its small genome size, short life cycle, and copious seed production. Although T. salsuginea shares a high sequence identity with its close relative Arabidopsis thaliana, it shows a greater tolerance to salinity, drought, freezing, heat, and cold. To elucidate the mechanism of abiotic stress resistance in T. salsuginea, we characterized its cytosolic Apx1 gene (TsApx1) and established A. thaliana transgenic lines overexpressing TsApx1. Under 300 mM NaCl, the content of H2O2, malondialdehyde, and proline were lower and the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase were all higher in the transgenic plants overexpressing TsApx1 (35S:TsApx1-GFP) than in the wild-type plants. The atapx1 mutant plants of A. thaliana had a NaCl/mannitol-sensitive phenotype. The ectopic expression of TsApx1 in the atapx1 mutant effectively remedied the phenotype. These results suggest that TsApx1 plays an important role in scavenging reactive oxygen species in the cytoplasm under salinity or drought. Although TsApx1 in T. salsuginea was constantly expressed at a high level, this gene was clearly inducible. In summary, the high constitutive expression and rapid induction of TsApx1 may contribute to the tolerance to abiotic stresses in T. salsuginea.
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Abbreviations
- APX:
-
ascorbate peroxidase
- CaMV:
-
Cauliflower mosaic virus
- cAPX:
-
cytosolic APX
- CAT:
-
catalase
- cDNA:
-
complementary DNA
- DAPI:
-
4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole
- DTNB:
-
dithio-bis-nitrobenzoic acid
- EDTA:
-
ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid
- GFP:
-
green fluorescent protein
- GPX:
-
glutathione peroxidase
- GSH:
-
glutathione
- H2O2 :
-
hydrogen peroxide
- mAPX:
-
microbody membrane-bound APX
- MDA:
-
malondialdehyde
- MS:
-
Murashige and Skoog
- NBT:
-
nitroblue tetrazolium
- O2 − :
-
superoxide anion
- OH· :
-
hydroxyl free radical
- 1O2 :
-
singlet oxygen
- ORF:
-
open reading frame
- qPCR:
-
quantitative PCR
- ROS:
-
reactive oxygen species
- RT-PCR:
-
reverse transcriptase-PCR
- sAPX:
-
stromal APX
- SOD:
-
superoxide dismutase
- tAPX:
-
thylakoid membrane-bound APX
- TBARS:
-
thiobarbituric acid-reactive-substances
- WT:
-
wild-type
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Acknowledgments: This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos. 31070289 and 31270365).
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Li, Z.Q., Li, J.X., Li, H.J. et al. Overexpression of TsApx1 from Thellungiella salsuginea improves abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana . Biol Plant 59, 497–506 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-015-0533-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-015-0533-y