Abstract
Dendrobium seedlings showed low survival rate when they were transferred from in vitro conditions to greenhouse or field environment. One of the major reasons is their low tolerance to environmental changes. WRKY transcription factors are one of the largest families of transcriptional regulators in plants. They are involved in various biotic and abiotic stress responses. One DnWRKY11 gene was isolated from Dendrobium nobile. To explore the function of DnWRKY11 in Dendrobium defense responses to abiotic stress, it was overexpressed in tobacco. Under salt and drought stresses, the DnWRKY11 transgenic tobacco showed higher germination rate, longer root length, higher fresh weight, higher activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and lower content of malonidialdehyde (MDA) than the wild type. These results proved the important roles of DnWRKY11 in plant response to drought and salt stresses, and provided a potential gene for improving environmental stress tolerance of Dendrobium seedlings.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asada K. 1992. Ascorbate peroxidase: A hydrogen peroxidescavenging enzyme in plants. Plant Physiol. 85: 235–241.
Borsani O., Valpuesta V. & Botella M.A. 2001. Evidence for a role of salicylic acid in the oxidative damage generated by NaCl and osmotic stress in Arabidopsis seedlings. Plant Physiol. 126: 1024–1030.
Chen L.G., Zhang L.P. & Yu D.Q. 2010. Wounding-induced WRKY8 is involved in basal defense in Arabidopsis. Mol. Plant-Microbe Interact. 23: 558–565.
Dionisio-Sese M.L. & Tobita S. 1998. Antioxidant responses of rice seedlings to salinity stress. Plant Sci. 135: 1–9.
Foyer C.H. & Noctor G. 2000. Oxygen processing in photosynthesis: regulation and signalling. New Phytol. 146: 359–388
Hernandez J.A., Ferrer M.A., Jimenez A., Barcelo A.R. & Sevilla F. 2001. Antioxidant systems and O −−2 /H2O2 production in the apoplast of pea leaves. Its relation with salt-induced necrotic lesions in minor veins. Plant Physiol. 127: 827–831.
Jiang W. & Yu D. 2009. Arabidopsis WRKY2 transcription factor mediates seed germination and post-germination arrest of development by abscisic acid. BMC Plant Biol. 22: 994–996.
Jiang Y. & Deyholos M. 2009. Functional characterization of Arabidopsis NaCl-inducible WRKY25 and WRKY33 transcription factors in abiotic stresses. Plant Mol. Biol. 69: 91–105.
Lagace M. & Matton D.P. 2004. Characterization of a WRKY transcription factor expressed in late torpedo-stage embryos of Solanum chacoense. Planta 219: 185–189.
Li H., Xu Y., Xiao Y., Zhu Z.G., Xie X.Q., Zhao H.Q. & Wang Y.J. 2010. Expression and functional analysis of two genes encoding transcription factors, VpWRKY1 and VpWRKY2, isolated from Chinese wild Vitis pseudoreticulata. Planta 232: 1325–1337.
Li S.J., Fu Q.T., Chen L.G., Huang W.D. & Yu D.Q. 2011. Arabidopsis thaliana WRKY25, WRKY26, and WRKY33 coordinate induction of plant thermotolerance. Planta 233: 1237–1252.
Liu J.J. & Ekramoddoullah A.K. 2009. Identification and characterization of the WRKY transcription factor family in Pinus monticola. Genome 52: 77–88.
Liu Q.L., Zhong M., Li S., Pan Y.Z., Jiang B.B., Jia Y. & Zhang H.Q. 2013. Overexpression of a chrysanthemum transcription factor gene, DgWRKY3, in tobacco enhances tolerance to salt stress. Plant Physiol. Biochem. 69: 27–33.
Mangelsen E., Kilian J., Berendzen K.W., Kolukisaoglu U.H., Harter K., Jansson C. & Wanke D. 2008. Phylogenetic and comparative gene expression analysis of barley (Hordeum vulgare) WRKY transcription factor family reveals putatively retained functions between monocots and dicots. BMC Genomics 9: 194.
Miao Y. & Zentgraf U. 2010. A HECT E3 ubiquitin ligase negatively regulates Arabidopsis leaf senescence through degradation of the transcription factor WRKY53. Plant J. 63: 179–188.
Pandey S.P. & Somssich I.E. 2009. The role of WRKY transcription factors in plant immunity. Plant Physiol. 150: 1648–1655.
Qiu Y.P. & Yu D.Q. 2009. Over-expression of the stress-induced OsWRKY45 enhances disease resistance and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis. Environ. Exp. Bot. 65: 35–47.
Ren X.Z., Chen Z.Z., Liu Y., Zhang H., Zhang M., Liu Q., Hong X., Zhu J.K. & Gong Z. 2010. ABO3, a WRKY transcription factor, mediates plant responses to abscisic acid and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis. Plant J. 63: 417–429.
Rushton P.J., Somssich I.E., Ringler P. & Shen Q.J. 2010. WRKY transcription factors. Trends Plant Sci. 15: 247–258.
Rushton P.J., Macdonald H., Huttly A.K., Lazarus C.M. & Hooley. R. 1995. Members of a new family of DNA-binding proteins bind to a conserved cis-element in the promoters of alpha-Amy2 genes. Plant Mol. Biol. 29: 691–702.
Song H.M., Fan P.X. & Li Y.X. 2009. Overexpression of AtHsp90 alters response to oxidative stress in transgenic Arabidopsis. Plant Mol. Biol. Rep. 27: 342–349.
Song Y., Ai C.R., Jing S.J. & Yu D.Q. 2010. Research progress on function analysis of rice WRKY gene. Rice Sci. 17: 60–72.
Song Y., Chen L.G., Zhang L.P. & Yu D.Q. 2010. Overexpression of OsWRKY72 gene interferes in the ABA signal and auxin transport pathway of Arabidopsis. J. Biosci. 35: 459–471.
Wang H.Z., Hu B., Chen G.P., Shi N.N., Zhao Y., Ying Q.C. & Liu J.J. 2008. Application of Arabidopsis AGAMOUS second intron for the engineered ablation of flower development in transgenic tobacco. Plant Cell Rep. 27: 251–259.
Wu X., Shiroto Y., Kishitani S., Ito Y. & Toriyama K. 2009. Enhanced heat and drought tolerance in transgenic rice seedlings overexpressing OsWRKY11 under the control of HSP101 promoter. Plant Cell Rep. 28: 21–30.
Xie Z., Zhang Z.L., Zou X., Yang G., Komatsu S. & Shen Q.J. 2006. Interactions of two abscisic-acid induced WRKY genes in repressing gibberellin signaling in aleurone cells. Plant J. 46: 231–242.
Xie Z., Zhang Z.L., Zou X., Huang J., Ruas P., Thompson D. & Shen Q.J. 2005. Annotations and functional analyses of the rice WRKY gene superfamily reveal positive and negative regulators of abscisic acid signaling in aleurone cells. Plant Physiol. 137: 176–189.
Zhang Z.L., Shin M., Zou X.L., Huang J.Z., Ho T.H. & Shen Q.J. 2009. A negative regulator encoded by a rice WRKY gene represses both abscisic acid and gibberellins signaling in aleurone cells. Plant Mol. Biol. 70: 139–151.
Zhang Z.L., Xie Z., Zou X., Casaretto J., Ho T.H. & Shen Q.J. 2004. A rice WRKY gene encodes a transcriptional repressor of the gibberellin signaling pathway in aleurone cells. Plant Physiol. 134: 1500–1513.
Zhou Q.Y., Tian A.G., Zou H.F., Xie Z.M., Lei G., Huang J., Wang C.M., Wang H.W., Zhang J.S. & Chen S.Y. 2008. Soybean WRKY-type transcription factor genes, GmWRKY13, GmWRKY21, and GmWRKY54, confer differential tolerance to abiotic stresses in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Plant Biotech. J. 6: 486–503.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xu, XB., Pan, YY., Wang, CL. et al. Overexpression of DnWRKY11 enhanced salt and drought stress tolerance of transgenic tobacco. Biologia 69, 994–1000 (2014). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-014-0398-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-014-0398-0