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The central role of GmGLP20.4 in root architecture modifications of soybean under low-nitrogen stress

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Abstract

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The GmGLP20.4 candidate gene plays an important role to improve soybean root architecture under low-nitrogen stress. The results lay the foundation for breeding low-nitrogen-tolerant soybean.

Abstract

Roots are fundamentally important for plant growth and development, facilitating water and nutrient uptake. Various abiotic and biotic factors significantly affect the root system architecture, especially low nitrogen (LN), but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we identified GmGLP20.4, a germin-like protein (ubiquitous plant glycoproteins belonging to the Cupin superfamily) crucial for lateral root development and highly induced by LN stress in lateral roots of soybean. GmGLP20.4 overexpression increased root biomass through development of an improved root system in soybean under LN, whereas a significant decrease in root biomass was observed in the gmglp20.4 knockout mutant. Overexpression of GmGLP20.4 improved plant growth and root architecture in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) under LN. Natural variation of the GT-1 cis-element in the promoter (T to A) of GmGLP20.4 was strongly associated with its expression level under LN, and significantly increased LN-sensitive variation (type A) was observed in wild soybean compared to that in elite cultivars. Thus, type A variation in the promoter of GmGLP20.4 may have been a site of artificial selection during domestication. The GmGT1-16g gene was highly expressed under LN and showed an expression pattern opposite to that of GmGLP20.4. A luciferase complementation imaging assay revealed that the GmGLP20.4 promoter specifically binds to GmGT1-16g. In conclusion, GmGLP20.4 is involved in soybean root development and the natural variation of its promoter will be useful in modern intercropping systems or to improve nitrogen-use efficiency.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1201605), The Colleges and Universities Nature Science Foundation of Anhui Province (KJ2021A0200), and the Research Funds for Academic and Technological Leaders and Reserve Candidates in Anhui Province (2020H236), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (2020301020).

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Author notes

  1. Wei Wang, Jiajia Li and Muhammad Nadeem have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agronomy, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, 230036, China

    Wei Wang, Jiajia Li, Muhammad Nadeem, Jianxin Wang, Ru Huang, Qian Liu, Wenqiao Fan, Haowei Zheng & Xiaobo Wang

  2. The Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Breeding of Hebei, Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang, China

    Long Yan

Authors
  1. Wei Wang
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  2. Jiajia Li
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  4. Jianxin Wang
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  5. Ru Huang
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Contributions

MN, JL and XW conceived and designed the contents. WW, MN, JL, RH, QL, JW, WF and HZ conducted the experiments; MN, JL, LY and XW wrote and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaobo Wang.

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The authors declare no confict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by Lijuan Qiu.

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Supplementary Information

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Supplementary Fig. 1.

Phenotype of nitrogen-resistant (XD8) and nitrogen-sensitive (WD32) soybean under low-nitrogen treatment. (JPG 901 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2.

Overexpression of GmGLP20.4 alters soybean root architecture under normal- and low-nitrogen treatment. A) RT-qPCR analysis of the relative transcription level of GmGLP20.4 in the roots of the control (CK) and three GmGLP20.4 overexpression lines. B) Root phenotype under normal nitrogen (NN) and low nitrogen (LN) conditions in hairy-root-transformed soybean harboring the transgene or empty vector. C) Root phenotype of the wild type (WT), GmGLP20.4 knockout mutant, and GmGLP20.4-overexpression lines of hairy-root-transformed soybean. (JPG 336 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 3.

Haplotype analysis of the GmGLP20.4 promoter. (JPG 195 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 4.

Expression patterns of the NRT2/NRT3/SOD gene families indicated by RNA-sequencing data.A) Expression pattern of the NRT2/NRT3 gene families in roots of the gmglp20.4 knockout mutant. B) Expression pattern of the SOD gene family in roots of the gmglp20.4 knockout mutant. (JPG 180 kb)

Supplementary Table 1.

Primers used in the study. (DOCX 14 kb)

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Wang, W., Li, J., Nadeem, M. et al. The central role of GmGLP20.4 in root architecture modifications of soybean under low-nitrogen stress. Theor Appl Genet 135, 4083–4093 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-022-04123-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-022-04123-x

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