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The oil palm R2R3-MYB subfamily genes EgMYB111 and EgMYB157 improve multiple abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants

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We found that overexpression of EgMYB111 and EgMYB157 genes positively regulate the abiotic stress tolerance.

Abstract

MYB family genes are well-known regulators in modulating the abiotic stress-responsive mechanisms in plants. However, lesser is known about the functional roles of oil palm MYB genes. Previously, we found that oil palm MYB genes such as EgMYB111 and EgMYB157 were significantly up-regulated under salinity, cold, and drought stress conditions. In this study, we over-expressed EgMYB111 and EgMYB157 genes separately in Arabidopsis plants. The transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing EgMYB111 have shown improved tolerance to salinity, cold and drought stress conditions, whereas transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing EgMYB157 dispalyed improved tolerance to cold and drought stress conditions only. Various biochemical analyses also revealed significant improvement of antioxidant enzyme activities, photosynthetic pigments, net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and intercellular CO2 concentration in transgenic plants compared to wild-type plants under cold, drought, and salinity stress conditions. Significant up-regulation of various known stress marker genes such as RD22, RD29A, RAB18, COR47, ABA1, ABI1, HAB1 was also noticed in EgMYB111 and EgMYB157 expressing transgenic plants compared to wild-type plants under cold, drought, and salinity stress conditions. Taken together, over-expression of EgMYB111 and/or EgMYB157 significantly improve abiotic tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants, indicating that EgMYB111 and EgMYB157 are the potential candidates for developing abiotic stress-tolerant crops in near future.

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Funding

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (31870670), the fund for species and varieties conservation of sector project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (1630152017004).

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Author notes

  1. Lixia Zhou and Rajesh Yarra have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coconut Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Hainan Key Laboratory of Tropical Oil Crops Biology, Wenchang, Hainan, 571339, People’s Republic of China

    Lixia Zhou, Rajesh Yarra, Yaodong Yang, Yanju Liu, Mengdi Yang & Hongxing Cao

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  1. Lixia Zhou
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  2. Rajesh Yarra
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  3. Yaodong Yang
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  4. Yanju Liu
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  5. Mengdi Yang
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  6. Hongxing Cao
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Contributions

LZ and RY conceived and designed the study. LZ and RY performed the experiments. LZ, RY, YY, YL, MY and HC analyzed the data. RY drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lixia Zhou.

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Communicated by Leena Tripathi.

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Zhou, L., Yarra, R., Yang, Y. et al. The oil palm R2R3-MYB subfamily genes EgMYB111 and EgMYB157 improve multiple abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. Plant Cell Rep 41, 377–393 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02814-1

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