A Rice Immunophilin Gene, OsFKBP16-3, Confers Tolerance to Environmental Stress in Arabidopsis and Rice

Response of the organellar and nuclear (post)transcriptomes of Arabidopsis to drought

Plants have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to cope with drought, which involve massive changes in nuclear gene expression. However, little is known about the roles of post-transcriptional processing of nuclear or organellar transcripts and how meaningful these changes are. To address these issues, we used RNA-sequencing after ribosomal RNA depletion to monitor (post)transcriptional changes during different times of drought exposure in Arabidopsis Col-0. Concerning the changes detected in the organellar transcriptomes, chloroplast transcript levels were globally reduced, editing efficiency dropped, but splicing was not affected. Mitochondrial transcripts were slightly elevated, while editing and splicing were unchanged. Conversely, alternative splicing (AS) affected nearly 1,500 genes (9% of expressed nuclear genes). Of these, 42% were regulated solely at the level of AS, representing transcripts that would have gone unnoticed in a microarray-based approach. Moreover, we identified 927 isoform switching events. We provide a table of the most interesting candidates, and as proof of principle, increased drought tolerance of the carbonic anhydrase ca1 and ca2 mutants is shown. In addition, altering the relative contributions of the spliced isoforms could increase drought resistance. For example, our data suggest that the accumulation of a nonfunctional FLM (FLOWERING LOCUS M) isoform and not the ratio of FLM-ß and -δ isoforms may be responsible for the phenotype of early flowering under long-day drought conditions. In sum, our data show that AS enhances proteome diversity to counteract drought stress and represent a valuable resource that will facilitate the development of new strategies to improve plant performance under drought.

OsFKBP20-1b interacts with the splicing factor OsSR45 and participates in the environmental stress response at the post-transcriptional level in rice

Sessile plants have evolved distinct mechanisms to respond and adapt to adverse environmental conditions through diverse mechanisms including RNA processing. While the role of RNA processing in the stress response is well understood for Arabidopsis thaliana, limited information is available for rice (Oryza sativa). Here, we show that OsFKBP20-1b, belonging to the immunophilin family, interacts with the splicing factor OsSR45 in both nuclear speckles and cytoplasmic foci, and plays an essential role in post-transcriptional regulation of abiotic stress response. The expression of OsFKBP20-1b was highly upregulated under various abiotic stresses. Moreover genetic analysis revealed that OsFKBP20-1b positively affected transcription and pre-mRNA splicing of stress-responsive genes under abiotic stress conditions. In osfkbp20-1b loss-of-function mutants, the expression of stress-responsive genes was downregulated, while that of their splicing variants was increased. Conversely, in plants overexpressing OsFKBP20-1b, the expression of the same stress-responsive genes was strikingly upregulated under abiotic stress. In vivo experiments demonstrated that OsFKBP20-1b directly maintains protein stability of OsSR45 splicing factor. Furthermore, we found that the plant-specific OsFKBP20-1b gene has uniquely evolved as a paralogue only in some Poaceae species. Together, our findings suggest that OsFKBP20-1b-mediated RNA processing contributes to stress adaptation in rice.

Advances in understanding salt tolerance in rice

This review presents a comprehensive overview of the recent research on rice salt tolerance in the areas of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and chemical genomics. Salinity is one of the major constraints in rice cultivation globally. Traditionally, rice is a glycophyte except for a few genotypes that have been widely used in salinity tolerance breeding of rice. Both seedling and reproductive stages of rice are considered to be the salt-susceptible stages; however, research efforts have been biased towards improving the understanding of seedling-stage salt tolerance. An extensive literature survey indicated that there have been very few attempts to develop reproductive stage-specific salt tolerance in rice probably due to the lack of salt-tolerant phenotypes at the reproductive stage. Recently, the role of DNA methylation, genome duplication and codon usage bias in salinity tolerance of rice have been studied. Furthermore, the study of exogenous salt stress alleviants in rice has opened up another potential avenue for understanding and improving its salt tolerance. There is a need to not only generate additional genomic resources in the form of salt-responsive QTLs and molecular markers and to characterize the genes and their upstream regulatory regions, but also to use them to gain deep insights into the mechanisms useful for developing tolerant varieties. We analysed the genomic locations of diverse salt-responsive genomic resources and found that rice chromosomes 1-6 possess the majority of these salinity-responsive genomic resources. The review presents a comprehensive overview of the recent research on rice salt tolerance in the areas of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and chemical genomics, which should help in understanding the molecular basis of salinity tolerance and its more effective improvement in rice.

Advances in understanding salt tolerance in rice

This review presents a comprehensive overview of the recent research on rice salt tolerance in the areas of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and chemical genomics. Salinity is one of the major constraints in rice cultivation globally. Traditionally, rice is a glycophyte except for a few genotypes that have been widely used in salinity tolerance breeding of rice. Both seedling and reproductive stages of rice are considered to be the salt-susceptible stages; however, research efforts have been biased towards improving the understanding of seedling-stage salt tolerance. An extensive literature survey indicated that there have been very few attempts to develop reproductive stage-specific salt tolerance in rice probably due to the lack of salt-tolerant phenotypes at the reproductive stage. Recently, the role of DNA methylation, genome duplication and codon usage bias in salinity tolerance of rice have been studied. Furthermore, the study of exogenous salt stress alleviants in rice has opened up another potential avenue for understanding and improving its salt tolerance. There is a need to not only generate additional genomic resources in the form of salt-responsive QTLs and molecular markers and to characterize the genes and their upstream regulatory regions, but also to use them to gain deep insights into the mechanisms useful for developing tolerant varieties. We analysed the genomic locations of diverse salt-responsive genomic resources and found that rice chromosomes 1-6 possess the majority of these salinity-responsive genomic resources. The review presents a comprehensive overview of the recent research on rice salt tolerance in the areas of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and chemical genomics, which should help in understanding the molecular basis of salinity tolerance and its more effective improvement in rice.

Elucidating the molecular mechanisms mediating plant salt-stress responses

Contents Summary 523 I. Introduction 523 II. Sensing salt stress 524 III. Ion homeostasis regulation 524 IV. Metabolite and cell activity responses to salt stress 527 V. Conclusions and perspectives 532 Acknowledgements 533 References 533 SUMMARY: Excess soluble salts in soil (saline soils) are harmful to most plants. Salt imposes osmotic, ionic, and secondary stresses on plants. Over the past two decades, many determinants of salt tolerance and their regulatory mechanisms have been identified and characterized using molecular genetics and genomics approaches. This review describes recent progress in deciphering the mechanisms controlling ion homeostasis, cell activity responses, and epigenetic regulation in plants under salt stress. Finally, we highlight research areas that require further research to reveal new determinants of salt tolerance in plants.

Chloroplast proteome response to drought stress and recovery in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

BACKGROUND

Drought is a major constraint for plant growth and crop productivity that is receiving an increased attention due to global climate changes. Chloroplasts act as environmental sensors, however, only partial information is available on stress-induced mechanisms within plastids. Here, we investigated the chloroplast response to a severe drought treatment and a subsequent recovery cycle in tomato through physiological, metabolite and proteomic analyses.

RESULTS

Under stress conditions, tomato plants showed stunted growth, and elevated levels of proline, abscisic acid (ABA) and late embryogenesis abundant gene transcript. Proteomics revealed that water deficit deeply affects chloroplast protein repertoire (31 differentially represented components), mainly involving energy-related functional species. Following the rewatering cycle, physiological parameters and metabolite levels indicated a recovery of tomato plant functions, while proteomics revealed a still ongoing adjustment of the chloroplast protein repertoire, which was even wider than during the drought phase (54 components differentially represented). Changes in gene expression of candidate genes and accumulation of ABA suggested the activation under stress of a specific chloroplast-to-nucleus (retrograde) signaling pathway and interconnection with the ABA-dependent network.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results give an original overview on the role of chloroplast as enviromental sensor by both coordinating the expression of nuclear-encoded plastid-localised proteins and mediating plant stress response. Although our data suggest the activation of a specific retrograde signaling pathway and interconnection with ABA signaling network in tomato, the involvement and fine regulation of such pathway need to be further investigated through the development and characterization of ad hoc designed plant mutants.

Overexpression of Golgi Protein CYP21-4s Improves Crop Productivity in Potato and Rice by Increasing the Abundance of Mannosidic Glycoproteins

CYP21-4 is a novel Golgi-localized cyclophilin protein involved in oxidative stress tolerance. Here, we generated transgenic plants overexpressing AtCYP21-4 and OsCYP21-4 in potato and rice, respectively. The stems and roots of AtCYP21-4-overexpressing potato plants were longer than those of wild-type (WT) plants, which resulted in heavier tubers. In vitro tuberization in the transgenic potato also resulted in significantly greater tuber number and weight, as well as a shorter time to microtuber formation. Similarly, OsCYP21-4-overexpressing transgenic rice plants had higher biomass and productivity with longer early-stage internodes than the WT and higher seed weight. Immunoblot analysis with CYP21-4 antibody showed that these productivity-enhancing phenotypes were associated with high CYP21-4s protein expression. Anatomically, transgenic potato stems exhibited higher lignin content in xylem cells and thicker leaves. In addition, relative content of mannosidic glycoproteins per unit of total protein was above 20% in transgenic potato tubers and rice grains. Based on these findings, we propose that CYP21-4s are involved in the growth and development of plant vegetative and storage tissues via their effects on glycoprotein abundance or glycan processing in the Golgi apparatus. Thus, increasing CYP21-4s expression in crops could represent an alternative way to increase crop productivity and yield.

Overexpression of OsCYP19-4 increases tolerance to cold stress and enhances grain yield in rice (Oryza sativa)

AtCYP19-4 (also known as CYP5) was previously identified as interacting in vitro with GNOM, a member of a large family of ARF guanine nucleotide exchange factors that is required for proper polar localization of the auxin efflux carrier PIN1. The present study demonstrated that OsCYP19-4, a gene encoding a putative homologue of AtCYP19-4, was up-regulated by several stresses and showed over 10-fold up-regulation in response to cold. The study further demonstrated that the promoter of OsCYP19-4 was activated in response to cold stress. An OsCYP19-4-GFP fusion protein was targeted to the outside of the plasma membrane via the endoplasmic reticulum as determined using brefeldin A, a vesicle trafficking inhibitor. An in vitro assay with a synthetic substrate oligomer confirmed that OsCYP19-4 had peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase activity, as was previously reported for AtCYP19-4. Rice plants overexpressing OsCYP19-4 showed cold-resistance phenotypes with significantly increased tiller and spike numbers, and consequently enhanced grain weight, compared with wild-type plants. Based on these results, the authors suggest that OsCYP19-4 is required for developmental acclimation to environmental stresses, especially cold. Furthermore, the results point to the potential of manipulating OsCYP19-4 expression to enhance cold tolerance or to increase biomass.

Rice cyclophilin OsCYP18-2 is translocated to the nucleus by an interaction with SKIP and enhances drought tolerance in rice and Arabidopsis

Cyclophilin 18-2 (CYP18-2) genes, homologues of human peptidyl-prolyl isomerase-like 1 (PPiL1), are conserved across multicellular organisms and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Although PPiL1 is known to interact with ski-interacting protein (SKIP), a transcriptional co-regulator and spliceosomal component, there have been no functional analyses of PPiL1 homologues in plants. Rice cyclophilin 18-2 (OsCYP18-2) bound directly to amino acids 56-95 of OsSKIP and its binding was independent of cyclosporin A, a cyclophilin-binding drug. Moreover, OsCYP18-2 exhibited PPIase activity regardless of its interaction with OsSKIP. Therefore, the binding site for OsCYP18-2's interaction with SKIP was distinct from the PPIase active site. OsCYP18-2's interaction with SKIP full-length protein enabled OsCYP18-2's translocation from the cytoplasm into the nucleus and AtSKIP interacted in planta with both AtCYP18-2 and OsCYP18-2. Drought and salt stress induced similar expression of OsCYP18-2 and OsSKIP. Overexpression of OsCYP18-2 in transgenic rice and Arabidopsis thaliana plants enhanced drought tolerance and altered expression and pre-mRNA splicing patterns of stress-related genes in Arabidopsis under drought conditions. Furthermore, OsCYP18-2 caused transcriptional activation with/without OsSKIP in the GAL4 system of yeast; thus the OsSKIP-OsCYP18-2 interaction has an important role in the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of stress-related genes and increases tolerance to drought stress.

OsCYP21-4, a novel Golgi-resident cyclophilin, increases oxidative stress tolerance in rice

OsCYP21-4 is a rice cyclophilin protein that binds to cyclosporine A, an immunosuppressant drug. CYP21-4s in Arabidopsis and rice were previously shown to function as mitochondrial cyclophilins, as determined by TargetP analysis. In the current study, we found that OsCYP21-4-GFP localized to the Golgi, rather than mitochondria, in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves, which was confirmed based on its co-localization with cis Golgi α-ManI-mCherry protein. OsCYP21-4 transcript levels increased in response to treatments with various abiotic stresses and the phytohormone abscisic acid, revealing its stress-responsiveness. CYP21-4 homologs do not possess key peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPIase) activity/cyclosporine A (CsA) binding residues, and recombinant OsCYP21-4 protein did not convert the synthetic substrate Suc-AAPF-pNA via cis- trans- isomerization in vitro. In addition, transgenic plants overexpressing OsCYP21-4 exhibited increased tolerance to salinity and hydrogen peroxide treatment, along with increased peroxidase activity. These results demonstrate that OsCYP21-4 is a novel Golgi-localized cyclophilin that plays a role in oxidative stress tolerance, possibly by regulating peroxidase activity.

Plant immunophilins: a review of their structure-function relationship

BACKGROUND

Originally discovered as receptors for immunosuppressive drugs, immunophilins consist of two major groups, FK506 binding proteins (FKBPs) and cyclosporin A binding proteins (cyclophilins, CYPs). Many members in both FKBP and CYP families are peptidyl prolyl isomerases that are involved in protein folding processes, though they share little sequence homology. It is not surprising to find immunophilins in all organisms examined so far, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, as protein folding represents a common process in all living systems.

SCOPE OF REVIEW

Studies on plant immunophilins have revealed new functions beyond protein folding and new structural properties beyond that of typical PPIases. This review focuses on the structural and functional diversity of plant FKBPs and CYPs.

MAJOR CONCLUSIONS

The differences in sequence, structure as well as subcellular localization, have added on to the diversity of this family of molecular chaperones. In particular, the large number of immunophilins present in the thylakoid lumen of the photosynthetic organelle, promises to deliver insights into the regulation of photosynthesis, a unique feature of plant systems. However, very little structural information and functional data are available for plant immunophilins.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE

Studies on the structure and function of plant immunophilins are important in understanding their role in plant biology. By reviewing the structural and functional properties of some immunophilins that represent the emerging area of research in plant biology, we hope to increase the interest of researchers in pursuing further research in this area. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Proline-directed Foldases: Cell Signaling Catalysts and Drug Targets.

AtFKBP16-1, a chloroplast lumenal immunophilin, mediates response to photosynthetic stress by regulating PsaL stability

Arabidopsis contains 16 putative chloroplast lumen-targeted immunophilins (IMMs). Proteomic analysis has enabled the subcellular localization of IMMs experimentally, but the exact biological and physiological roles of most luminal IMMs remain to be discovered. FK506-binding protein (FKBP) 16-1, one of the lumenal IMMs containing poorly conserved amino acid residues for peptidyl-prolyl isomerase (PPIase) activity, was shown to play a possible role in chloroplast biogenesis in Arabidopsis, and was also found to interact with PsaL in wheat. In this study, further evidence is provided for the notion that Arabidopsis FKBP16-1 (AtFKBP16-1) is transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally regulated by environmental stresses including high light (HL) intensity, and that overexpression of AtFKBP16-1 plants exhibited increased photosynthetic stress tolerance. A blue native-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis/two-dimensional (BN-PAGE/2-D) analysis revealed that the increase of AtFKBP16-1 affected the levels of photosystem I (PSI)-light harvesting complex I (LHCI) and PSI-LHCI-light harvesting complex II (LHCII) supercomplex, and consequently enhanced tolerance under conditions of HL stress. In addition, plants overexpressing AtFKBP16-1 showed increased accumulation of PsaL protein and enhanced drought tolerance. Using a protease protection assay, AtFKBP16-1 protein was found to have a role in PsaL stability. The AtPsaL levels also responded to abiotic stresses derived from drought, and from methyl viologen stresses in wild-type plants. Taken together, these results suggest that AtFKBP16-1 plays a role in the acclimation of plants under photosynthetic stress conditions, probably by regulating PsaL stability.