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Ectopic expression of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) CsTIR/AFB genes enhance salt tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Auxin receptors TIR1/AFBs play an essential role in a series of signaling network cascades. These F-box proteins have also been identified to participate in different stress responses via the auxin signaling pathway in Arabidopsis. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is one of the most important crops worldwide, which is also a model plant for research. In the study herein, two cucumber homologous auxin receptor F-box genes CsTIR and CsAFB were cloned and studied for the first time. The deduced amino acid sequences showed a 78% identity between CsTIR and AtTIR1 and 76% between CsAFB and AtAFB2. All these proteins share similar characteristics of an F-box domain near the N-terminus, and several Leucine-rich repeat regions in the middle. Arabidopsis plants ectopically overexpressing CsTIR or CsAFB were obtained and verified. Shorter primary roots and more lateral roots were found in these transgenic lines with auxin signaling amplified. Results showed that expression of CsTIR/AFB genes in Arabidopsis could lead to higher seeds germination rates and plant survival rates than wild-type under salt stress. The enhanced salt tolerance in transgenic plants is probably caused by maintaining root growth and controlling water loss in seedlings, and by stabilizing life-sustaining substances as well as accumulating endogenous osmoregulation substances. We proposed that CsTIR/AFB-involved auxin signal regulation might trigger auxin mediated stress adaptation response and enhance the plant salt stress resistance by osmoregulation.

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Abbreviations

AFB :

AUXIN SIGNALING F BOX PROTEIN

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

FW:

Fresh weight

GH :

GRETCHEN HAGEN3.6

IAA1/19 :

Indole-3-acetic acid inducible 1/19

LRRs:

Leucine-rich repeat regions

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time PCR

RWC:

Relative water content

SCF:

Skp1/Cullin/F-box

SD:

Standard deviation

SMART:

Simple modular architecture research tool

TIR1 :

TRANSPORT INHIBITOR RESPONSE PROTEIN1

UBQ5 :

UBIQUITIN5

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant number 31100207), and Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant number LY14C020004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310036, Zhejiang, China

    Zhehao Chen, Mengting Li, Ye Yuan, Jiangqin Hu, Yanjun Yang, Jiliang Pang & Lilin Wang

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  1. Zhehao Chen
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  2. Mengting Li
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  3. Ye Yuan
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  4. Jiangqin Hu
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  5. Yanjun Yang
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  6. Jiliang Pang
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  7. Lilin Wang
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Contributions

ZC and LW conceived and designed the experiments. ML, YY and YY performed the experiments. JH and JP analyzed the data. YY contributed reagents and analysis tools. ZC and LW wrote the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lilin Wang.

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Communicated by Qiao-Chun Wang.

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Chen, Z., Li, M., Yuan, Y. et al. Ectopic expression of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) CsTIR/AFB genes enhance salt tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis . Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 131, 107–118 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-017-1267-7

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