Abstract
Key message
SbMYC2 functions as a key regulator under JA signaling in enhancing drought tolerance of sorghum through direct activating SbGR1.
Abstract
Drought stress is one of the major threats to crop yield. In response to drought stress, functions of basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) transcription factors (TFs) have been reported in Arabidopsis and rice, but little is known for sorghum. Here, we characterized the function of SbMYC2, a bHLH TF in sorghum, and found that SbMYC2 responded most significantly to PEG-simulated drought stress and JA treatments. Overexpression of SbMYC2 significantly enhanced drought tolerance in Arabidopsis, rice and sorghum. In addition, it reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and increased chlorophyll content in sorghum leaves. While silencing SbMYC2 by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) resulted in compromised drought tolerance of sorghum seedlings. Moreover, SbMYC2 can directly activate the expression of GLUTATHIONE-DISULFIDE REDUCTASE gene SbGR1. SbGR1 silencing led to significantly weakened drought tolerance of sorghum, and higher ROS accumulation and lower chlorophyll content in sorghum leaves were detected. In addition, SbMYC2 can interact with SbJAZs, suppressors of JA signaling, and thus can mediate JA signaling to activate SbGR1, thereby regulating sorghum's tolerance to drought stress. Overall, our findings demonstrate that bHLH TF SbMYC2 plays an important role in sorghum's response to drought stress, thus providing one theoretical basis for genetic enhancement of sorghum and even rice.
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Data availability
Data supporting the findings of this work are available within the article/Supplementary files. The plant materials and datasets generated and analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (020814380180), the Xiangyu Talent research launch project (31LGH00), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (LH2022C062), the Postdoctoral Start-up Science Foundation of Heilongjiang (LBH-Q19164), Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University Support Program for San Heng San Zong (ZRCLG201906) and Jie Bang Gua Shuai R & D Program of Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University (JB20220001).
Funding
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (020814380180), the Xiangyu Talent research launch project (31LGH00), the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (LH2022C062), the Postdoctoral Start-up Science Foundation of Heilongjiang (LBH-Q19164), Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University Support Program for San Heng San Zong (ZRCLG201906) and Jie Bang Gua Shuai R & D Program of Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University (JB20220001).
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BS conceived and designed research. GW, YL, XJ and ZY conducted experiments. GW, YL and GL contributed to data collection. GW and GL analyzed data. GW and BS wrote the manuscript. LD, YY, GL and BS revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.
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Wang, G., Long, Y., Jin, X. et al. SbMYC2 mediates jasmonic acid signaling to improve drought tolerance via directly activating SbGR1 in sorghum. Theor Appl Genet 137, 72 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-024-04578-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-024-04578-0