An ABA-increased interaction of the PYL6 ABA receptor with MYC2 Transcription Factor: A putative link of ABA and JA signaling

Protein degradation mechanisms modulate abscisic acid signaling and responses during abiotic stress

Abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, high temperature or freezing can be perceived, in part, as a transient or permanent hyperosmotic stress by the plant cell. As sessile organisms, the detrimental effects of these environmental insults limit plants productivity but also their geographical distribution. Sensing and signaling events that detect the hyperosmotic (or simply osmotic) stress involve the cellular increase of active abscisic acid (ABA). The stress phytohormone ABA regulates fundamental growth and developmental processes in the plant by marshalling metabolic and gene-expression reprogramming. Among the ABA-responsive genes, some are strictly ABA-dependent in that their expression is almost undetectable in absence of elevated levels of cellular ABA, thus their physiological role may be required only transiently. In addition, ABA-dependent modulation of some of the signaling effectors can be irreversible. In this review, without any pretention to being exhaustive, we use specific examples to illustrate how mechanistically conserved eukaryotic cell proteolytic pathways affect ABA-dependent signaling. We describe how defined proteolysis mechanisms in the plant cell, including Regulated Intramembrane Proteolysis (RIP), the Ubiquitin 26S Proteasomal System (UPS), the endocytic and autophagy pathways, contribute to regulate the spatiotemporal level and activity of PP2Cs (protein phosphatases 2C), and how an intriguing ABA-induced protein, the plant Translocator protein (TSPO), is targeted for degradation. Degradation of regulatory or effector molecules modulates or desensitizes ABA-dependent signaling and reestablishes cellular homeostasis.

OsJAZ1 Attenuates Drought Resistance by Regulating JA and ABA Signaling in Rice

Jasmonates (JAs) and abscisic acid (ABA) are phytohormones known play important roles in plant response and adaptation to various abiotic stresses including salinity, drought, wounding, and cold. JAZ (JASMONATE ZIM-domain) proteins have been reported to play negative roles in JA signaling. However, direct evidence is still lacking that JAZ proteins regulate drought resistance. In this study, OsJAZ1 was investigated for its role in drought resistance in rice. Expression of OsJAZ1 was strongly responsive to JA treatment, and it was slightly responsive to ABA, salicylic acid, and abiotic stresses including drought, salinity, and cold. The OsJAZ1-overexpression rice plants were more sensitive to drought stress treatment than the wild-type (WT) rice Zhonghua 11 (ZH11) at both the seedling and reproductive stages, while the jaz1 T-DNA insertion mutant plants showed increased drought tolerance compared to the WT plants. The OsJAZ1-overexpression plants were hyposensitive to MeJA and ABA, whereas the jaz1 mutant plants were hypersensitive to MeJA and ABA. In addition, there were significant differences in shoot and root length between the OsJAZ1 transgenic and WT plants under the MeJA and ABA treatments. A subcellular localization assay indicated that OsJAZ1 was localized in both the nucleus and cytoplasm. Transcriptome profiling analysis by RNA-seq revealed that the expression levels of many genes in the ABA and JA signaling pathways exhibited significant differences between the OsJAZ1-overexpression plants and WT ZH11 under drought stress treatment. Quantitative real-time PCR confirmed the expression profiles of some of the differentially expressed genes, including OsNCED4, OsLEA3, RAB21, OsbHLH006, OsbHLH148, OsDREB1A, OsDREB1B, SNAC1, and OsCCD1. These results together suggest that OsJAZ1 plays a role in regulating the drought resistance of rice partially via the ABA and JA pathways.

Enhanced Secondary- and Hormone Metabolism in Leaves of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Medicago truncatula

Arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) are the most common symbiotic associations between a plant's root compartment and fungi. They provide nutritional benefit (mostly inorganic phosphate [Pi]), leading to improved growth, and nonnutritional benefits, including defense responses to environmental cues throughout the host plant, which, in return, delivers carbohydrates to the symbiont. However, how transcriptional and metabolic changes occurring in leaves of AM plants differ from those induced by Pi fertilization is poorly understood. We investigated systemic changes in the leaves of mycorrhized Medicago truncatula in conditions with no improved Pi status and compared them with those induced by high-Pi treatment in nonmycorrhized plants. Microarray-based genome-wide profiling indicated up-regulation by mycorrhization of genes involved in flavonoid, terpenoid, jasmonic acid (JA), and abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis as well as enhanced expression of MYC2, the master regulator of JA-dependent responses. Accordingly, total anthocyanins and flavonoids increased, and most flavonoid species were enriched in AM leaves. Both the AM and Pi treatments corepressed iron homeostasis genes, resulting in lower levels of available iron in leaves. In addition, higher levels of cytokinins were found in leaves of AM- and Pi-treated plants, whereas the level of ABA was increased specifically in AM leaves. Foliar treatment of nonmycorrhized plants with either ABA or JA induced the up-regulation of MYC2, but only JA also induced the up-regulation of flavonoid and terpenoid biosynthetic genes. Based on these results, we propose that mycorrhization and Pi fertilization share cytokinin-mediated improved shoot growth, whereas enhanced ABA biosynthesis and JA-regulated flavonoid and terpenoid biosynthesis in leaves are specific to mycorrhization.

The jasmonic acid-signalling and abscisic acid-signalling pathways cross talk during one, but not repeated, dehydration stress: a non-specific 'panicky' or a meaningful response?

Experiencing diverse and recurring biotic and abiotic stresses throughout life, plants have evolved mechanisms to respond, survive and, eventually, adapt to changing habitats. The initial response to drought involves a large number of genes that are involved also in response to other stresses. According to current models, this initial response is non-specific, becoming stress-specific only at later time points. The question, then, is whether non-specific activation of various stress-signalling systems leading to the expression of numerous stress-regulated genes is a false-alarm (panicky) response or whether it has biologically relevant consequences for the plant. Here, it is argued that the initial activation of genes associated other stresses reflects an important event during which stress-specific mechanisms are generated to prevent subsequent activation of non-drought signalling pathways. How plants discriminate between a first and a repeated dehydration stress and how repression of non-drought specific genes is achieved will be discussed on the example of jasmonic acid-associated Arabidopsis genes activated by a first, but not subsequent, dehydration stresses. Revealing how expression of various biotic/abiotic stress responding genes is prevented under recurring drought spells may be critical for our understanding of how plants respond to dynamically changing environments.

Evolution of Hormone Signaling Networks in Plant Defense

Studies with model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana have revealed that phytohormones are central regulators of plant defense. The intricate network of phytohormone signaling pathways enables plants to activate appropriate and effective defense responses against pathogens as well as to balance defense and growth. The timing of the evolution of most phytohormone signaling pathways seems to coincide with the colonization of land, a likely requirement for plant adaptations to the more variable terrestrial environments, which included the presence of pathogens. In this review, we explore the evolution of defense hormone signaling networks by combining the model plant-based knowledge about molecular components mediating phytohormone signaling and cross talk with available genome information of other plant species. We highlight conserved hubs in hormone cross talk and discuss evolutionary advantages of defense hormone cross talk. Finally, we examine possibilities of engineering hormone cross talk for improvement of plant fitness and crop production.

Salt-tolerant and -sensitive alfalfa (Medicago sativa) cultivars have large variations in defense responses to the lepidopteran insect Spodoptera litura under normal and salt stress condition

In nature, plants are often exposed to multiple stress factors at the same time. Yet, little is known about how plants modulate their physiology to counteract simultaneous abiotic and biotic stresses, such as soil salinity and insect herbivory. In this study, insect performance bioassays, phytohormone measurements, quantification of transcripts, and protein determination were employed to study the phenotypic variations of two alfalfa (Medicago sativa) cultivars in response to insect Spodoptera litura feeding under normal and salt stress condition. When being cultivated in normal soil, the salt-tolerant alfalfa cultivar Zhongmu-1 exhibited lower insect resistance than did the salt-sensitive cultivar Xinjiang Daye. Under salinity stress, the defense responses of Xinjiang Daye were repressed, whereas Zhongmu-1 did not show changes in resistance levels. It is likely that salinity influenced the resistance of Xinjiang Daye through suppressing the accumulation of jasmonic acid-isoleucine (JA-Ile), which is the bioactive hormone inducing herbivore defense responses, leading to attenuated trypsin proteinase inhibitor (TPI) activity. Furthermore, exogenous ABA supplementation suppressed the insect herbivory-induced JA/JA-Ile accumulation and levels of JAR1 (jasmonate resistant 1) and TPI, and further decreased the resistance of Xinjiang Daye, whereas Zhongmu-1 showed very little response to the increased ABA level. We propose a mechanism, in which high levels of abscisic acid induced by salt treatment may affect the expression levels of JAR1 and consequently decrease JA-Ile accumulation and thus partly suppress the defense of Xinjiang Daye against insects under salt stress. This study provides new insight into the mechanism by which alfalfa responds to concurrent abiotic and biotic stresses.

Stomatal Defense a Decade Later

A decade has passed since the discovery of stomatal defense, and the field has expanded considerably with significant understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying the process.

BZR1 Positively Regulates Freezing Tolerance via CBF-Dependent and CBF-Independent Pathways in Arabidopsis

Cold stress is a major environmental factor that adversely affects plant growth and development. The C-repeat binding factor/DRE binding factor 1 (CBF/DREB1) transcriptional regulatory cascade has been shown to play important roles in plant response to cold. Here we demonstrate that two key components of brassinosteroid (BR) signaling modulate freezing tolerance of Arabidopsis plants. The loss-of-function mutant of the GSK3-like kinases involved in BR signaling, bin2-3 bil1 bil2, showed increased freezing tolerance, whereas overexpression of BIN2 resulted in hypersensitivity to freezing stress under both non-acclimated and acclimated conditions. By contrast, gain-of-function mutants of the transcription factors BZR1 and BES1 displayed enhanced freezing tolerance, and consistently cold treatment could induce the accumulation of dephosphorylated BZR1. Biochemical and genetic analyses showed that BZR1 acts upstream of CBF1 and CBF2 to directly regulate their expression. Moreover, we found that BZR1 also regulated other COR genes uncoupled with CBFs, such as WKRY6, PYL6, SOC1, JMT, and SAG21, to modulate plant response to cold stress. Consistently, wrky6 mutants showed decreased freezing tolerance. Taken together, our results indicate that BZR1 positively modulates plant freezing tolerance through CBF-dependent and CBF-independent pathways.

Identification and characterization of the abscisic acid (ABA) receptor gene family and its expression in response to hormones in the rubber tree

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an essential phytohormone involved in diverse physiological processes. Although genome-wide analyses of the ABA receptor PYR/PYL/RCAR (PYL) protein/gene family have been performed in certain plant species, little is known about the ABA receptor protein/gene family in the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). In this study, we identified 14 ABA receptor PYL proteins/genes (designated HbPYL1 through HbPYL14) in the most recent rubber tree genome. A phylogenetic tree was constructed, which demonstrated that HbPYLs can be divided into three subfamilies that correlate well with the corresponding Arabidopsis subfamilies. Eight HbPYLs are highly expressed in laticifers. Five of the eight genes are simultaneously regulated by ABA, jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene (ET). The identification and characterization of HbPYLs should enable us to further understand the role of ABA signal in the rubber tree.

Jasmonate action in plant growth and development

Phytohormones, including jasmonates (JAs), gibberellin, ethylene, abscisic acid, and auxin, integrate endogenous developmental cues with environmental signals to regulate plant growth, development, and defense. JAs are well- recognized lipid-derived stress hormones that regulate plant adaptations to biotic stresses, including herbivore attack and pathogen infection, as well as abiotic stresses, including wounding, ozone, and ultraviolet radiation. An increasing number of studies have shown that JAs also have functions in a remarkable number of plant developmental events, including primary root growth, reproductive development, and leaf senescence. Since the 1980s, details of the JA biosynthesis pathway, signaling pathway, and crosstalk during plant growth and development have been elucidated. Here, we summarize recent advances and give an updated overview of JA action and crosstalk in plant growth and development.

Jasmonates: biosynthesis, metabolism, and signaling by proteins activating and repressing transcription

The lipid-derived phytohormone jasmonate (JA) regulates plant growth, development, secondary metabolism, defense against insect attack and pathogen infection, and tolerance to abiotic stresses such as wounding, UV light, salt, and drought. JA was first identified in 1962, and since the 1980s many studies have analyzed the physiological functions, biosynthesis, distribution, metabolism, perception, signaling, and crosstalk of JA, greatly expanding our knowledge of the hormone's action. In response to fluctuating environmental cues and transient endogenous signals, the occurrence of multilayered organization of biosynthesis and inactivation of JA, and activation and repression of the COI1-JAZ-based perception and signaling contributes to the fine-tuning of JA responses. This review describes the JA biosynthetic enzymes in terms of gene families, enzymatic activity, location and regulation, substrate specificity and products, the metabolic pathways in converting JA to activate or inactivate compounds, JA signaling in perception, and the co-existence of signaling activators and repressors.

Abiotic Stress Signaling and Responses in Plants

As sessile organisms, plants must cope with abiotic stress such as soil salinity, drought, and extreme temperatures. Core stress-signaling pathways involve protein kinases related to the yeast SNF1 and mammalian AMPK, suggesting that stress signaling in plants evolved from energy sensing. Stress signaling regulates proteins critical for ion and water transport and for metabolic and gene-expression reprogramming to bring about ionic and water homeostasis and cellular stability under stress conditions. Understanding stress signaling and responses will increase our ability to improve stress resistance in crops to achieve agricultural sustainability and food security for a growing world population.

Abscisic Acid as Pathogen Effector and Immune Regulator

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a sesquiterpene signaling molecule produced in all kingdoms of life. To date, the best known functions of ABA are derived from its role as a major phytohormone in plant abiotic stress resistance. Different organisms have developed different biosynthesis and signal transduction pathways related to ABA. Despite this, there are also intriguing common themes where ABA often suppresses host immune responses and is utilized by pathogens as an effector molecule. ABA also seems to play an important role in compatible mutualistic interactions such as mycorrhiza and rhizosphere bacteria with plants, and possibly also the animal gut microbiome. The frequent use of ABA in inter-species communication could be a possible reason for the wide distribution and re-invention of ABA as a signaling molecule in different organisms. In humans and animal models, it has been shown that ABA treatment or nutrient-derived ABA is beneficial in inflammatory diseases like colitis and type 2 diabetes, which confer potential to ABA as an interesting nutraceutical or pharmacognostic drug. The anti-inflammatory activity, cellular metabolic reprogramming, and other beneficial physiological and psychological effects of ABA treatment in humans and animal models has sparked an interest in this molecule and its signaling pathway as a novel pharmacological target. In contrast to plants, however, very little is known about the ABA biosynthesis and signaling in other organisms. Genes, tools and knowledge about ABA from plant sciences and studies of phytopathogenic fungi might benefit biomedical studies on the physiological role of endogenously generated ABA in humans.

Genome Wide Identification and Characterization of Apple bHLH Transcription Factors and Expression Analysis in Response to Drought and Salt Stress

The bHLH (basic helix-loop-helix) transcription factor family is the second largest in plants. It occurs in all three eukaryotic kingdoms, and plays important roles in regulating growth and development. However, family members have not previously been studied in apple. Here, we identified 188 MdbHLH proteins in apple "Golden Delicious" (Malus × domestica Borkh.), which could be classified into 18 groups. We also investigated the gene structures and 12 conserved motifs in these MdbHLHs. Coupled with expression analysis and protein interaction network prediction, we identified several genes that might be responsible for abiotic stress responses. This study provides insight and rich resources for subsequent investigations of such proteins in apple.

Transcript and hormone analyses reveal the involvement of ABA-signalling, hormone crosstalk and genotype-specific biological processes in cold-shock response in wheat

The effect of one-day cold-shock on the transcriptome and phytohormones (auxin, cytokinins, abscisic, jasmonic and salicylic acids) was characterised in freezing-sensitive (Chinese Spring), highly freezing-tolerant (Cheyenne) and moderately freezing-tolerant (Chinese Spring substituted with Cheyenne's 5A chromosome) wheat genotypes. Altogether, 636 differentially expressed genes responding to cold-shock were identified. Defence genes encoding LEA proteins, dehydrins, chaperons and other temperature-stress responsive proteins were up-regulated in a genotype-independent manner. Abscisic acid was up-regulated by cold accompanied by adherent expression of its metabolic genes. Data revealed the involvement of particular routes within ABA-dependent signalling in response to cold-shock in the examined genotypes. Cold-shock affected gene expression along carbohydrate metabolic pathways. In photosynthesis, cold-shock changed the expression of a number of genes in the same way as it was previously reported for ABA. Overrepresentation analysis of the differentially expressed genes supported the ABA-signalling and carbohydrate metabolism results, and revealed some pronounced biological process GO categories associated with the cold-shock response of the genotypes. Protein network analysis indicated differences between the genotypes in the information flow along their signal perception and transduction, suggesting different biochemical and cellular strategies in their reaction to cold-shock.

Abiotic Stress Signaling and Responses in Plants

As sessile organisms, plants must cope with abiotic stress such as soil salinity, drought, and extreme temperatures. Core stress-signaling pathways involve protein kinases related to the yeast SNF1 and mammalian AMPK, suggesting that stress signaling in plants evolved from energy sensing. Stress signaling regulates proteins critical for ion and water transport and for metabolic and gene-expression reprogramming to bring about ionic and water homeostasis and cellular stability under stress conditions. Understanding stress signaling and responses will increase our ability to improve stress resistance in crops to achieve agricultural sustainability and food security for a growing world population.

Abiotic Stress Signaling and Responses in Plants

As sessile organisms, plants must cope with abiotic stress such as soil salinity, drought, and extreme temperatures. Core stress-signaling pathways involve protein kinases related to the yeast SNF1 and mammalian AMPK, suggesting that stress signaling in plants evolved from energy sensing. Stress signaling regulates proteins critical for ion and water transport and for metabolic and gene-expression reprogramming to bring about ionic and water homeostasis and cellular stability under stress conditions. Understanding stress signaling and responses will increase our ability to improve stress resistance in crops to achieve agricultural sustainability and food security for a growing world population.

Abiotic Stress Signaling and Responses in Plants

As sessile organisms, plants must cope with abiotic stress such as soil salinity, drought, and extreme temperatures. Core stress-signaling pathways involve protein kinases related to the yeast SNF1 and mammalian AMPK, suggesting that stress signaling in plants evolved from energy sensing. Stress signaling regulates proteins critical for ion and water transport and for metabolic and gene-expression reprogramming to bring about ionic and water homeostasis and cellular stability under stress conditions. Understanding stress signaling and responses will increase our ability to improve stress resistance in crops to achieve agricultural sustainability and food security for a growing world population.

The Sweet Potato NAC-Domain Transcription Factor IbNAC1 Is Dynamically Coordinated by the Activator IbbHLH3 and the Repressor IbbHLH4 to Reprogram the Defense Mechanism against Wounding

IbNAC1 is known to activate the defense system by reprogramming a genetic network against herbivory in sweet potato. This regulatory activity elevates plant defense potential but relatively weakens plants by IbNAC1-mediated JA response. The mechanism controlling IbNAC1 expression to balance plant vitality and survival remains unclear. In this study, a wound-responsive G-box cis-element in the IbNAC1 promoter from -1484 to -1479 bp was identified. From a screen of wound-activated transcriptomic data, one transcriptional activator, IbbHLH3, and one repressor, IbbHLH4, were selected that bind to and activate or repress, respectively, the G-box motif in the IbNAC1 promoter to modulate the IbNAC1-mediated response. In the early wound response, the IbbHLH3-IbbHLH3 protein complex binds to the G-box motif to activate IbNAC1 expression. Thus, an elegant defense network is activated against wounding stress. Until the late stages of wounding, IbbHLH4 interacts with IbbHLH3, and the IbbHLH3-IbbHLH4 heterodimer competes with the IbbHLH3-IbbHLH3 complex to bind the G-box and suppress IbNAC1 expression and timely terminates the defense network. Moreover, the JAZs and IbEIL1 proteins interact with IbbHLH3 to repress the transactivation function of IbbHLH3 in non-wounded condition, but their transcription is immediately inhibited upon early wounding. Our work provides a genetic model that accurately switches the regulatory mechanism of IbNAC1 expression to adjust wounding physiology and represents a delicate defense regulatory network in plants.

Mapping transcription factor interactome networks using HaloTag protein arrays

Protein microarrays enable investigation of diverse biochemical properties for thousands of proteins in a single experiment, an unparalleled capacity. Using a high-density system called HaloTag nucleic acid programmable protein array (HaloTag-NAPPA), we created high-density protein arrays comprising 12,000 Arabidopsis ORFs. We used these arrays to query protein-protein interactions for a set of 38 transcription factors and transcriptional regulators (TFs) that function in diverse plant hormone regulatory pathways. The resulting transcription factor interactome network, TF-NAPPA, contains thousands of novel interactions. Validation in a benchmarked in vitro pull-down assay revealed that a random subset of TF-NAPPA validated at the same rate of 64% as a positive reference set of literature-curated interactions. Moreover, using a bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay, we confirmed in planta several interactions of biological interest and determined the interaction localizations for seven pairs. The application of HaloTag-NAPPA technology to plant hormone signaling pathways allowed the identification of many novel transcription factor-protein interactions and led to the development of a proteome-wide plant hormone TF interactome network.

The Role and Regulation of ABI5 (ABA-Insensitive 5) in Plant Development, Abiotic Stress Responses and Phytohormone Crosstalk

ABA Insensitive 5 (ABI5) is a basic leucine zipper transcription factor that plays a key role in the regulation of seed germination and early seedling growth in the presence of ABA and abiotic stresses. ABI5 functions in the core ABA signaling, which is composed of PYR/PYL/RCAR receptors, PP2C phosphatases and SnRK2 kinases, through the regulation of the expression of genes that contain the ABSCISIC ACID RESPONSE ELEMENT (ABRE) motif within their promoter region. The regulated targets include stress adaptation genes, e.g., LEA proteins. However, the expression and activation of ABI5 is not only dependent on the core ABA signaling. Many transcription factors such as ABI3, ABI4, MYB7 and WRKYs play either a positive or a negative role in the regulation of ABI5 expression. Additionally, the stability and activity of ABI5 are also regulated by other proteins through post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination, sumoylation and S-nitrosylation. Moreover, ABI5 also acts as an ABA and other phytohormone signaling integrator. Components of auxin, cytokinin, gibberellic acid, jasmonate and brassinosteroid signaling and metabolism pathways were shown to take part in ABI5 regulation and/or to be regulated by ABI5. Monocot orthologs of AtABI5 have been identified. Although their roles in the molecular and physiological adaptations during abiotic stress have been elucidated, knowledge about their detailed action still remains elusive. Here, we describe the recent advances in understanding the action of ABI5 in early developmental processes and the adaptation of plants to unfavorable environmental conditions. We also focus on ABI5 relation to other phytohormones in the abiotic stress response of plants.