An ABA response regulator unique to basal land plants required for the acquisition of desiccation tolerance
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ABSTRACT: Purpose: The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) coordinates responses leading to desiccation tolerance in all land plants. RNA-seq was employed to obtain differential expression data in response to ABA, dehydration and mannitol treatments in wild-type tissue. This was compared against the targeted gene knockout line PpanrKO. The ANR gene encodes a novel ABA regulator identified from ABA non-responsive (anr) mutant screens. Methods: RNA-seq on the Illumina HiSeq platform and mapping to the V3.0 genome and transcriptome assemblies using tophat2 enabled gene abundance data to be generated for differential gene expression analysis with edgeR in the Trinity package. Results: We observe a coordinated up-regulation of ca. 900 genes, with extensive overlaps between hormone and stress treatments as well as ca. 900 down-regulated genes. Of the up-regulated genes, those encoding LEA proteins, membrane channel proteins and transporters and oxidative-stress-associated genes comprised a significant fraction while those encoding growth-associated cell wall enzymes (e.g. expansins) and components of secondary metabolism (notably enzymes in the phenylpropanoid pathway) were prominent in the down-regulated genes. The ANR gene, a modular MAP3 kinase comprising an N-terminal PAS domain, a central EDR domain and a C-terminal MAPKKK-like domain unique to basal plant lineages, is found to play a central role in these responses with mutants failing to accumulate the wide spectrum of dehydration tolerance-associated gene products characteristic of the wild-type response and do not acquire ABA-dependent desiccation tolerance. Conclusions: Our study adds considerable data to the stress responses in bryophytes helping understand the mechanisms behind vegetative dehydration tolerance; an important trait for crop species. We also confirmed the vital role that PpANR plays in these responses in the moss Physcomitrella patens likely representing an ancestral mechanism for ABA-mediated dehydration tolerance vital in the conquest of land.
ORGANISM(S): Physcomitrium patens
PROVIDER: GSE72583 | GEO | 2016/07/25
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA294412
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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