Early Responses to Severe Drought Stress in the Arabidopsis thaliana Cell Suspension Culture Proteome

Elucidating the downstream pathways triggered by H2S signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana under drought stress via transcriptome analysis

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a crucial signaling molecule in plants. Recent studies have shown that H2S plays an equally important role as nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in plant signaling. Previous studies have demonstrated the involvement of H2S in regulating drought and other stressful environmental conditions, but the exact downstream molecular mechanisms activated by the H2S signaling molecule remain unclear. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive genome-wide transcriptomic analysis of both wild type (WT) and double mutant (lcd/des1). Arabidopsis thaliana plants were exposed to 40% polyethylene glycol (PEG) to induce drought stress and 20 µM sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS). The resulting transcriptome data were analyzed for differentially significant genes and their statistical enrichments in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. The results indicated significant upregulation of genes related to photosynthesis, carbon fixation, plant secondary metabolite biosynthesis, inositol and phosphatidylinositol signaling pathways, and stress-responsive pathways in mutant plants under drought stress. Mutant plants with impaired H2S signaling mechanisms displayed greater susceptibility to drought stress compared to wild-type plants. In summary, all findings highlight the pivotal role of H2S signaling in stimulating other drought-responsive signaling pathways.

Utilizing machine learning and bioinformatics analysis to identify drought-responsive genes affecting yield in foxtail millet

Drought stress is a major constraint on crop development, potentially causing huge yield losses and threatening global food security. Improving Crop's stress tolerance is usually associated with a yield penalty. One way to balance yield and stress tolerance is modification specific gene by emerging precision genome editing technology. However, our knowledge of yield-related drought-tolerant genes is still limited. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) has a remarkable tolerance to drought and is considered to be a model C4 crop that is easy to engineer. Here, we have identified 46 drought-responsive candidate genes by performing a machine learning-based transcriptome study on two drought-tolerant and two drought-sensitive foxtail millet cultivars. A total of 12 important drought-responsive genes were screened out by principal component analysis and confirmed experimentally by qPCR. Significantly, by investigating the haplotype of these genes based on 1844 germplasm resources, we found two genes (Seita.5G251300 and Seita.8G036300) exhibiting drought-tolerant haplotypes that possess an apparent advantage in 1000 grain weight and main panicle grain weight without penalty in grain weight per plant. These results demonstrate the potential of Seita.5G251300 and Seita.8G036300 for breeding drought-tolerant high-yielding foxtail millet. It provides important insights for the breeding of drought-tolerant high-yielding crop cultivars through genetic manipulation technology.

Modulation of abscisic acid signaling via endosomal TOL proteins

The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) functions in the control of plant stress responses, particularly in drought stress. A significant mechanism in attenuating and terminating ABA signals involves regulated protein turnover, with certain ABA receptors, despite their main presence in the cytosol and nucleus, subjected to vacuolar degradation via the Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT) machinery. Collectively our findings show that discrete TOM1-LIKE (TOL) proteins, which are functional ESCRT-0 complex substitutes in plants, affect the trafficking for degradation of core components of the ABA signaling and transport machinery. TOL2,3,5 and 6 modulate ABA signaling where they function additively in degradation of ubiquitinated ABA receptors and transporters. TOLs colocalize with their cargo in different endocytic compartments in the root epidermis and in guard cells of stomata, where they potentially function in ABA-controlled stomatal aperture. Although the tol2/3/5/6 quadruple mutant plant line is significantly more drought-tolerant and has a higher ABA sensitivity than control plant lines, it has no obvious growth or development phenotype under standard conditions, making the TOL genes ideal candidates for engineering to improved plant performance.

Functional annotation of proteins in Catharanthus roseus shoot cultures under biogenic zinc nanotreatment

Nano-interactions are well known for their positive as well as negative impacts on the morphological and physiological systems of plants. Keeping in mind, the conformational changes in plant proteins as one of the key mechanisms for stress adaptation responses, the current project was designed to explore the effect of glutathione-capped and uncapped zinc nano-entities on Catharanthus roseus shoot cultures. Zinc nanotreatment (0.05 μg/mL) significantly induced ester production in C. roseus shoots as detected by Gas Chromatography-Mass spectrometry. These nanotreated shoots were further subjected to peptide-centric nano-LC-MS/MS analysis. Mass spectrometry followed by a Heat map revealed a significant effect of zinc nanoparticles on 59 distinct classes of proteins as compared to control. Proteins involved in regulating stress scavenging, transport, and secondary metabolite biosynthesis were robustly altered under capped zinc nanotreatment. UniProt database identified majority of the localization of the abundantly altered protein in cell membranes and chloroplasts. STRING and Cytoscape analysis assessed inter and intra coordination of triosephosphate isomerase with other identified proteins and highlighted its role in the regulation of protein abundance under applied stress. This study highlights the understanding of complex underlying mechanisms and regulatory networks involved in proteomic alterations and interactions within the plant system to cope with the nano-effect.

Genome-wide association analysis reveals genes controlling an antagonistic effect of biotic and osmotic stress on Arabidopsis thaliana growth

While the response of Arabidopsis thaliana to drought, herbivory or fungal infection has been well-examined, the consequences of exposure to a series of such (a)biotic stresses are not well studied. This work reports on the genetic mechanisms underlying the Arabidopsis response to single osmotic stress, and to combinatorial stress, either fungal infection using Botrytis cinerea or herbivory using Pieris rapae caterpillars followed by an osmotic stress treatment. Several small-effect genetic loci associated with rosette dry weight (DW), rosette water content (WC), and the projected rosette leaf area in response to combinatorial stress were mapped using univariate and multi-environment genome-wide association approaches. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated with DROUGHT-INDUCED 19 (DI19) was identified by both approaches, supporting its potential involvement in the response to combinatorial stress. Several SNPs were found to be in linkage disequilibrium with known stress-responsive genes such as PEROXIDASE 34 (PRX34), BASIC LEUCINE ZIPPER 25 (bZIP25), RESISTANCE METHYLATED GENE 1 (RMG1) and WHITE RUST RESISTANCE 4 (WRR4). An antagonistic effect between biotic and osmotic stress was found for prx34 and arf4 mutants, which suggests PRX34 and ARF4 play an important role in the response to the combinatorial stress.

Transcriptomics and Physiological Analyses Reveal Changes in Paclitaxel Production and Physiological Properties in Taxus cuspidata Suspension Cells in Response to Elicitors

In this research, the cell growth, physiological, and biochemical reactions, as well as the paclitaxel production, of Taxus cuspidata suspension cells after treatment with polyethylene glycol (PEG), cyclodextrin (CD), or salicylic acid (SA) (alone or in combination) were investigated. To reveal the paclitaxel synthesis mechanism of T. cuspidata suspension cells under elicitor treatment, the transcriptomics of the Control group and P + C + S group (PEG + CD + SA) were compared. The results show that there were no significant differences in cell biomass after 5 days of elicitor treatments. However, the content of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA), and the activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) after elicitor combination treatments were decreased compared with the single-elicitor treatment. Meanwhile, the antioxidant enzyme activity (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (PO)) and the contents of soluble sugar and soluble protein were increased after combination elicitor treatments. Additionally, the paclitaxel yield after treatment with the combination of all three elicitors (P + C + S) was 6.02 times higher than that of the Control group, thus indicating that the combination elicitor treatments had a significant effect on paclitaxel production in T. cuspidata cell suspension culture. Transcriptomics analysis revealed 13,623 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the Control and P + C + S treatment groups. Both GO and KEGG analyses showed that the DEGs mainly affected metabolic processes. DEGs associated with antioxidant enzymes, paclitaxel biosynthesis enzymes, and transcription factors were identified. It can be hypothesized that the oxidative stress of suspension cells occurred with elicitor stimulation, thereby leading to a defense response and an up-regulation of the gene expression associated with antioxidant enzymes, paclitaxel synthesis enzymes, and paclitaxel synthesis transcription factors; this ultimately increased the production of paclitaxel.

Candidate regulators of drought stress in tomato revealed by comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses

Drought is among the most common abiotic constraints of crop growth, development, and productivity. Integrating different omics approaches offers a possibility for deciphering the metabolic pathways and fundamental mechanisms involved in abiotic stress tolerance. Here, we explored the transcriptional and post-transcriptional changes in drought-stressed tomato plants using transcriptomic and proteomic profiles to determine the molecular dynamics of tomato drought stress responses. We identified 22467 genes and 5507 proteins, among which the expression of 3765 genes and 294 proteins was significantly changed under drought stress. Furthermore, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) showed a good correlation (0.743). The results indicated that integrating different omics approaches is promising in exploring the multilayered regulatory mechanisms of plant drought resistance. Gene ontology (GO) and pathway analysis identified several GO terms and pathways related to stress resistance, including response to stress, abiotic stimulus, and oxidative stress. The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays pivotal roles in response to drought stress, ABA-response element binding factor (AREB) is a key positive regulator of ABA signaling. Moreover, our analysis indicated that drought stress increased the abscisic acid (ABA) content, which activated AREB1 expression to regulate the expression of TAS14, GSH-Px-1, and Hsp, ultimately improving tomato drought resistance. In addition, the yeast one-hybrid assay demonstrated that the AREB1 could bind the Hsp promoter to activate Hsp expression. Thus, this study involved a full-scale analysis of gene and protein expression in drought-stressed tomato, deepening the understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of the essential drought-tolerance genes in tomato.

Lipo-chitooligosaccharide and thuricin 17 act as plant growth promoters and alleviate drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana

Lipo-chito-oligosaccharide (LCO-from Bradyrhizobium japonicum) and thuricin 17 (Th17-from Bacillus thuringiensis) are bacterial signal compounds from the rhizosphere of soybean that have been shown to enhance plant growth in a range of legumes and non-legumes. In this study, an attempt to quantify phytohormones involved in the initial hours after exposure of Arabidopsis thaliana to these compounds was conducted using UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. A petri-plate assay was conducted to screen for drought stress tolerance to PEG 8000 infusion and plant growth was studied 21-days post-stress. Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown in trays with drought stress imposed by water withhold were used for free proline determination, elemental analysis, and untargeted proteomics using LC-MS/MS studies. At 24 h post-exposure to the signal compounds under optimal growth conditions, Arabidopsis thaliana rosettes varied in their responses to the two signals. While LCO-treated rosettes showed a decrease in total IAA, cytokinins, gibberellins, and jasmonic acid, increases in ABA and SA was very clear. Th17-treated rosettes, on the other hand, showed an increase in IAA and SA. Both treatments resulted in decreased JA levels. Under severe drought stress imposed by PEG 8000 infusion, LCO and Th17 treatments were found to significantly increase fresh and dry weight over drought-stressed control plates, indicating that the presence of the signaling compounds decreased the negative effects experienced by the plants. Free proline content increased in LCO- and Th17-treated plants after water-withhold drought stress. Elemental analysis showed a significant increase in carbon percentage at the lower concentration of Th17. Untargeted proteomics revealed changes in the levels of drought-specific ribosomal proteins, glutathione S-transferase, late embryogenesis proteins, vegetative storage proteins 1 and 2, thaumatin-like proteins, and those related to chloroplast and carbon metabolism. The roles of some of these significantly affected proteins detected under drought stress are discussed.

Integrated transcriptome, proteome and metabolome analyses revealed secondary metabolites and auxiliary carbohydrate metabolism augmenting drought tolerance in rice

Drought is one of the major consequences of climate change and a serious threat to rice production. Drought stress activates interactions among genes, proteins and metabolites at the molecular level. A comparative multi-omics analysis of drought-tolerant and drought-sensitive rice cultivars can decipher the molecular mechanisms involved in drought tolerance/response. Here, we characterized the global-level transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome profiles, and performed integrated analyses thereof in a drought-sensitive (IR64) and a drought-tolerant (Nagina 22) rice cultivar under control and drought-stress conditions. The transcriptional dynamics and its integration with proteome analysis revealed the role of transporters in regulation of drought stress. The proteome response illustrated the contribution of translational machinery to drought tolerance in N22. The metabolite profiling revealed that aromatic amino acids and soluble sugars contribute majorly to drought tolerance in rice. The integrated transcriptome, proteome and metabolome analysis performed using statistical and knowledge-based methods revealed the preference for auxiliary carbohydrate metabolism through glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway contributed to drought tolerance in N22. In addition, L-phenylalanine and the genes/proteins responsible for its biosynthesis were also found to contribute to drought tolerance in N22. In conclusion, our study provided mechanistic insights into the drought response/adaptation mechanism and is expected to facilitate engineering of drought tolerance in rice.

Common and novel metabolic pathways related ESTs were upregulated in three date palm cultivars to ameliorate drought stress

Date palm is an important staple crop in Saudi Arabia, and about 400 different date palm cultivars grown here, only 50-60 of them are used commercially. The most popular and commercially consumed cultivars of these are Khalas, Reziz, and Sheshi, which are also widely cultivated across the country. Date palm is high water-demanding crop in oasis agriculture, with an inherent ability to tolerate drought stress. However, the mechanisms by which it tolerates drought stress, especially at the transcriptomic level, are still elusive. This study appraised the physiological and molecular response of three commercial date palm cultivars Khalas, Reziz, and Sheshi at two different field capacities (FC; 100% and 25%) levels. At 25% FC (drought stress), leaf relative water content, chlorophyll, photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and transpiration were significantly reduced. However, leaf intercellular CO2 concentration and water use efficiency increased under drought stress. In comparison to cvs. Khalas and Reziz, date palm cv. Sheshi showed less tolerance to drought stress. A total of 1118 drought-responsive expressed sequence tags (ESTs) were sequenced, 345 from Khalas, 391 from Reziz, and 382 from Sheshi and subjected to functional characterization, gene ontology classification, KEGG pathways elucidation, and enzyme codes dissemination. Three date palm cultivars deployed a multivariate approach to ameliorate drought stress by leveraging common and indigenous molecular, cellular, biological, structural, transcriptional and reproductive mechanisms. Approximately 50% of the annotated ESTs were related to photosynthesis regulation, photosynthetic structure, signal transduction, auxin biosynthesis, osmoregulation, stomatal conductance, protein synthesis/turnover, active transport of solutes, and cell structure modulation. Along with the annotated ESTs, ca. 45% of ESTs were novel. Conclusively, the study provides novel clues and opens the myriads of genetic resources to understand the fine-tuned drought amelioration mechanisms in date palm.

Influence of Drought Stress and Post-Drought Rewatering on Phytoremediation Effect of Arabidopsis thaliana

Globally, plants face large amounts of environmental stresses, which can inhibit their growth rate and element uptake capacity. Droughts are a critical limitation to plant growth in arid and semi-arid areas. Effects of drought stress and post-drought rewatering on the compensatory growth and Cd phytoremediation efficiency of Arabidopsis thaliana were estimated using slight and moderate drought conditions. Results showed compensatory growth can be induced by post-drought rewatering, as manifested by the increased dry weight and photosynthetic efficiency of the species under drought stress (particularly slight stress) as compared to those of the control. Slight stress increased concentrations of Cd in roots and leaves of A. thaliana by elevating its transpiration rate, whereas moderate stress induced the opposite effect. When the species was subjected to slight stress, Cd concentrations in plant tissues surpassed those in the control after rewatering, indicating that post-drought rewatering can compensate for the detrimental impacts caused by slight drought in A. thaliana. At the end of the experiment, slight and moderate drought stresses increased the Cd extraction ability of the species by 48.9% and 12.7%, respectively, compared to the control. This study demonstrates compensatory effects of post-drought rewatering on the Cd phytoextraction capacity of A. thaliana and suggests that suitable water deficit irrigation practices can enhance soil remediation efficiency and simultaneously save water in the field.

Distinct cellular strategies determine sensitivity to mild drought of Arabidopsis natural accessions

The worldwide distribution of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) accessions imposes different types of evolutionary pressures, which contributes to various responses of these accessions to environmental stresses. Responses to drought stress have mostly been studied in the Columbia accession, which is predominantly used in plant research. However, the reactions to drought stress are complex and our understanding of the responses that contribute to maintaining plant growth during mild drought (MD) is very limited. Here, we studied the mechanisms with which natural accessions react to MD at a physiological and molecular level during early leaf development. We documented variations in MD responses among natural accessions and used transcriptome sequencing of a drought-sensitive accession, ICE163, and a drought-insensitive accession, Yeg-1, to gain insights into the mechanisms underlying this discrepancy. This revealed that ICE163 preferentially induces jasmonate- and anthocyanin-related pathways, which are beneficial in biotic stress defense, whereas Yeg-1 has a more pronounced activation of abscisic acid signaling, the classical abiotic stress response. Related physiological traits, including the content of proline, anthocyanins, and reactive oxygen species, stomatal closure, and cellular leaf parameters, were investigated and linked to the transcriptional responses. We can conclude that most of these processes constitute general drought response mechanisms that are regulated similarly in drought-insensitive and -sensitive accessions. However, the capacity to close stomata and maintain cell expansion under MD appeared to be major factors that allow to better sustain leaf growth under MD.

Suppression of DRR1 results in the accumulation of insoluble ubiquitinated proteins, which impairs drought stress tolerance

Drought stress has detrimental effects on plants. Although the abscisic acid (ABA)-mediated drought response is well established, defensive mechanisms to cope with dehydration-induced proteotoxicity have been rarely studied. DRR1 was identified as an Arabidopsis drought-induced gene encoding an ER-localized RING-type E3 Ub ligase. Suppression of DRR1 markedly reduced tolerance to drought and proteotoxic stress without altering ABA-mediated germination and stomatal movement. Proteotoxicity- and dehydration-induced insoluble ubiquitinated protein accumulation was more obvious in DRR1 loss-of-function plants than in wild-type plants. These results suggest that DRR1 is involved in an ABA-independent drought stress response possibly through the mitigation of dehydration-induced proteotoxic stress.

Cyclic AMP mediates heat stress response by the control of redox homeostasis and ubiquitin-proteasome system

Heat stress (HS), causing impairment in several physiological processes, is one of the most damaging environmental cues for plants. To counteract the harmful effects of high temperatures, plants activate complex signalling networks, indicated as HS response (HSR). Expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and adjustment of redox homeostasis are crucial events of HSR, required for thermotolerance. By pharmacological approaches, the involvement of cAMP in triggering plant HSR has been recently proposed. In this study, to investigate the role of cAMP in HSR signalling, tobacco BY-2 cells overexpressing the 'cAMP-sponge', a genetic tool that reduces intracellular cAMP levels, have been used. in vivo cAMP dampening increased HS susceptibility in a HSPs-independent way. The failure in cAMP elevation during HS caused a high accumulation of reactive oxygen species, due to increased levels of respiratory burst oxidase homolog D, decreased activities of catalase and ascorbate peroxidase, as well as down-accumulation of proteins involved in the control of redox homeostasis. In addition, cAMP deficiency impaired proteasome activity and prevented the accumulation of many proteins of ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS). By a large-scale proteomic approach together with in silico analyses, these UPS proteins were identified in a specific cAMP-dependent network of HSR.

Photochemistry and proteomics of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) under drought and shading

Drought has become an increasingly serious ecological problem that limits crop production. However, little is known about the response of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) to drought and shading, especially with respect to photosynthetic electron transport. Here, differential proteomics was used to study the response of ginger to four experimental treatments: control, drought, 50% shading, and the combination of 50% shading and drought. Proteomic analysis suggested that ginger increased cyclic electron flow under drought stress by enhancing the expression of proteins related to photosystem I and cytochrome b6f. Shading significantly increased the expression of proteins related to the light harvesting complex, even under drought stress. In addition, shading increased the expression of proteins related to the oxygen evolution complex, plastocyanin, and ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase (FNR), thereby enhancing the efficiency of photosynthetic electron utilization. The shading and drought combination treatment appeared to enhance ginger's drought tolerance by reducing the expression of FNR and enhancing cyclic electron flow. Photosynthetic and fluorescence parameters showed that drought stress caused non-stomatal limitation of photosynthesis in ginger leaves. Drought stress also significantly reduced the quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), the non-cyclic electron transfer efficiency of photosystem II (ϕPSII), and photochemical quenching (qP), while simultaneously increasing nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ). The addition of shading improved photosynthetic efficiency under drought. These results provide important baseline information on the photosynthetic mechanisms by which ginger responds to drought and shading. In addition, they provide a theoretical basis for the study of shade cultivation during the arid season.

Transcriptomic analysis of poco1, a mitochondrial pentatricopeptide repeat protein mutant in Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND

Flowering is a crucial stage during plant development. Plants may respond to unfavorable conditions by accelerating reproductive processes like flowering. In a recent study, we showed that PRECOCIOUS1 (POCO1) is a mitochondrial pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein involved in flowering time and abscisic acid (ABA) signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we use RNA-seq data to investigate global gene expression alteration in the poco1 mutant.

RESULTS

RNA-seq analysis was performed during different developmental stages for wild-type and poco1 plants. The most profound differences in gene expression were found when wild-type and poco1 plants of the same developmental stage were compared. Coverage analysis confirmed the T-DNA insertion in POCO1, which was concomitant with truncated transcripts. Many biological processes were found to be enriched. Several flowering-related genes such as FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), which may be involved in the early-flowering phenotype of poco1, were differentially regulated. Numerous ABA-associated genes, including the core components of ABA signaling such as ABA receptors, protein phosphatases, protein kinases, and ABA-responsive element (ABRE) binding proteins (AREBs)/ABRE-binding factors (ABFs) as well as important genes for stomatal function, were mostly down-regulated in poco1. Drought and oxidative stress-related genes, including ABA-induced stress genes, were differentially regulated. RNA-seq analysis also uncovered differentially regulated genes encoding various classes of transcription factors and genes involved in cellular signaling. Furthermore, the expression of stress-associated nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial proteins (NGEMPs) was found to be altered in poco1. Redox-related genes were affected, suggesting that the redox state in poco1 might be altered.

CONCLUSION

The identification of various enriched biological processes indicates that complex regulatory mechanisms underlie poco1 development. Differentially regulated genes associated with flowering may contribute to the early-flowering phenotype of poco1. Our data suggest the involvement of POCO1 in the early ABA signaling process. The down-regulation of many ABA-related genes suggests an association of poco1 mutation with the ABA signaling deficiency. This condition further affects the expression of many stress-related, especially drought-associated genes in poco1, consistent with the drought sensitivity of poco1. poco1 mutation also affects the expression of genes associated with the cellular regulation, redox, and mitochondrial perturbation.

Arabidopsis Lectin EULS3 Is Involved in ABA Signaling in Roots

The Arabidopsis thaliana lectin ArathEULS3 is upregulated in particular stress conditions and upon abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. ABA is a plant hormone important for plant growth and stress responses. During stress ABA is perceived by PYR/PYL/RCAR receptors, inhibiting protein phosphatases PP2Cs thereby enabling SNRK2s kinases to start downstream phosphorylation cascades and signaling. PYL9, one of the ABA receptors was identified as an interacting partner for ArathEULS3. Promoter::GUS activity studies revealed the expression of ArathEULS3 in the central root cylinder and the cells flanking young lateral root primordia, and showed enhanced expression in root tips after ABA treatment. Transcript levels for ArathEULS3 increased after exposure to ABA and osmotic treatments. ArathEULS3 CRISPR KO mutants served as a tool to expand the knowledge on the role of ArathEULS3 in plant development. KO lines revealed a longer root system compared to WT plants, and showed reduced sensitivity to ABA, salt, and osmotic conditions. Additionally it was noted that the KO mutants had more emerged lateral roots when grown in high osmotic conditions. Together these data suggest that ArathEULS3 may be an important player in ABA responses in roots.

Establishment and Characterization of Callus and Cell Suspension Cultures of Selected Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench Varieties: A Resource for Gene Discovery in Plant Stress Biology

Sorghum, a naturally drought tolerant crop, is genetically diverse and provides a wide gene pool for exploitation in crop breeding. In this study, we experimentally assessed friable callus induction rates of seven sorghum varieties using shoot explant for the generation of cell suspension cultures. The cell suspensions were characterized in terms of cell growth and viability profiles as well as gene expression following 400 mM sorbitol-induced osmotic stress for 72 h. Only ICSB 338, a drought susceptible variety, was readily amenable to friable callus formation. Cell culture growth plots of both ICSB 338 and White sorghum (used as a reference line) depicted typical sigmoidal curves. Interestingly, Evans blue assay showed that ICSB 338 cell cultures are more susceptible to osmotic stress than the White sorghum cells. The osmotic stress treatment also triggered differential expression of eight target genes between the two cell culture lines. Overall, these results suggest that the genetic diversity of sorghum germplasm influences friable callus induction rates and molecular responses to osmotic stress, and could be further exploited in plant stress biology studies. Therefore, we have developed a valuable resource for use in molecular studies of sorghum in response to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses.

Drought stress induces a biphasic NO accumulation in Arabidopsis thaliana

We have recently reported the proteomic signature of the early (≤30 min) drought stress responses in Arabidopsis thaliana suspension cells challenged with PEG. We found an over-representation in the gene ontology categories "Ribosome" and "Oxidative stress along with an increased abundance of late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) and early response to dehydration (ERD) proteins. Since nitric oxide (NO) plays a pivotal role in plant responses to drought stress and induces LEA and DREB proteins, here we monitored the levels of NO in Arabidopsis cell suspensions and leaf disks challenged with PEG, and performed comparative analyses of the proteomics and transcriptomics data in public domain to search for a common set of early drought and NO responsive proteins. We show that under drought-stress, NO shows a biphasic time course, much like in response to ozone stress and that among the early drought and NO responsive proteins, the categories "DNA binding", "Nucleotide binding" and "Transcription regulator activity" are enriched. Taken together, present study suggests that in Arabidopsis the changing NO levels may play a critical role in early drought responsive processes and notably in the transcriptional and translational reprograming observed under drought stress.