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A Novel Wheat Nicotianamine Synthase Gene, TaNAS-D, Confers High Salt Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Nicotianamine synthase (NAS) plays a pivotal role in balancing the concentrations of heavy metals in plants, but its characteristics and functions in salt stress responses are not completely understood, particularly in wheat. In this study, the salt-induced gene TaNAS-D was cloned from wheat and characterized. TaNAS-D, localized throughout the cell, is mainly expressed in developed vascular bundle tissues and is responsive to NaCl, ABA, and H2O2 stresses. Overexpression of TaNAS-D in Arabidopsis led to elevated NA levels and enhanced salt stress tolerance, which was demonstrated by higher germination rates and improved growth of TaNAS-D transgenic Arabidopsis plants compared with WT when exposed to salt stress. Further investigation revealed that TaNAS-D transgenic Arabidopsis plants displayed higher K+/Na+ ratios, lower malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, and less ion leakage (IL) consistently accompanied by increased peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) activities, thereby reducing membrane injury. Moreover, TaNAS-D overexpression under salt stress increased AtSOS1, AtSOS2, AtSOS3, AtFAD5, and AtSAD1 transcript levels. These findings indicate that TaNAS-D plays a positive role in salt tolerance by improving the antioxidant defense system and upregulating salt overly sensitive (SOS) pathway genes.

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Abbreviations

NAS:

Nicotianamine synthase

GFP:

Green fluorescent protein

ABA:

Abscisic acid

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

MS:

Murashige and Skoog

ORF:

Open reading frame

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

IL:

Ion leakage

POD:

Peroxidase

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

CAT:

Catalase

SOS:

Salt overly sensitive

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050022, China

      Jie Han, Wei Zhang, Qiannan Su, Zijing Li, Xiaoli Fan, Na Zhang, Ruiqing Pan, Fa Cui, Jun Ji & Junming Li

    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

      Jie Han, Qiannan Su, Xiaoli Fan, Na Zhang & Ruiqing Pan

    3. State Key Laboratory of Plant Cell and Chromosome Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

      Wei Zhang, Fa Cui, Jun Ji & Junming Li

    4. Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang, 050035, China

      Lijing Sun & Hui Li

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    1. Jie Han
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    Correspondence to Wei Zhang or Junming Li.

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    This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31401309), Hebei Provincial Science and Technology Research and Development Project (16226320D and 13966305D), and China Agriculture Research System (CARS-03-01B).

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    Jie Han and Wei Zhang contributed equally to this work.

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    Han, J., Zhang, W., Sun, L. et al. A Novel Wheat Nicotianamine Synthase Gene, TaNAS-D, Confers High Salt Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis . Plant Mol Biol Rep 35, 252–264 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-016-1018-7

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