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Roles of γ-aminobutyric acid on salinity-responsive genes at transcriptomic level in poplar: involving in abscisic acid and ethylene-signalling pathways

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Abstract

Main conclusion

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) affected ABA and ethylene metabolic genes and signal components in salt-treated poplar, indicating its potential role in signal pathways of ABA and ethylene during salt stress.

GABA is a small signalling molecule that accumulates rapidly in plants exposed to various stresses. However, the relationship between GABA and other signalling molecules, such as hormones, remains unclear. Here, in the poplar woody plant under 200-mM NaCl conditions, the application of low (0.25 mM) and high (10 mM) exogenous GABA, compared to 0 mM, affected the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and hormones, including ABA and ethylene, in different manners. Transcriptomic analysis demonstrated that 1025 differentially expressed genes (DEGs; |log2Ratio| ≥ 1.5) were widely affected by exogenous GABA under salt stress. A clustering analysis revealed that GABA could rescue or promote the effects of salt stress on gene expression. Among them, 146 genes involved in six hormone-signalling pathways were enriched, including 22 ABA- and 50 ethylene-related genes. Quantitative expression of selected genes involved in hormone-related pathways showed that ABA metabolic genes (ABAG, ABAH2, and ABAH4), ethylene biosynthetic genes (ACO1, ACO2, ACO5, ACOH1, ACS1, and ACS7) and receptor genes (PYL1, PYL2, PYL4, and PYL6) were regulated by exogenous GABA, even at a 0.1 mM level. The production of ABA was negatively correlated with ABAH expression levels at different GABA concentrations. The increase of endogenous GABA, resulting from inhibitor (succinyl phosphonate) of α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, affected the PYLs levels. Thus, GABA may be involved in ABA- and ethylene-signalling pathways. Our data provide a better understanding of GABA’s roles in the plant responses to environmental stresses.

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Abbreviations

ABAG:

Abscisate beta-glucosyltransferase

ABAH:

Abscisic acid 8-hydroxylase

ACO:

1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase

ACS:

1-Aminocyclopropene-1-carboxylate synthase

GABA:

γ-Aminobutyric acid

PYL:

Pyrabactin-resistant-like

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Non-profit Research Institution of CAF (CAFYBB2014ZX001-3), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31100490). We thank Prof. Dr. Mengzhu Lu for the good suggestion during analyzing data, and Mrs. Lingyu Zheng for the help in parts of physiological measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation of State Forestry Administration, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, No. 1 Dongxiaofu, Xiangshan Road, Haidian, Beijing, 100091, China

    Jing Ji, Jianyun Yue, Tiantian Xie, Wei Chen, Changjian Du, Ermei Chang, Zeping Jiang & Shengqing Shi

  2. Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China

    Zeping Jiang

  3. Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

    Lanzhen Chen

  4. Risk Assessment Laboratory for Bee Products, Quality and Safety of Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing, China

    Lanzhen Chen

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  1. Jing Ji
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  2. Jianyun Yue
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Correspondence to Zeping Jiang or Shengqing Shi.

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Fig. S1

Effects of exogenous GABA on superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities in poplar under 200-mM NaCl for 0, 6, and 24 h. SOD activities in leaves (a) and roots (b). POD activities in leaves (c) and roots (d). Vertical bars represent the mean ± SD of at least three replicated experiments. Data were analyzed using t test in the SPASS software 19 version. * indicates statistically significant differences between samples with and without GABA (P < 0.05) (TIFF 34510 kb)

Fig. S2

Verification of six selected differentially expressed genes by qRT-PCR. Comparison of RNA-seq data with qRT-PCR data (red line). The normalized expression level (reads per kilobase per million reads) of the relative qRT-PCR expression level is indicated on the y-axis to the left. RNA-seq is shown on the y-axis to the right. Internal reference gene: Actin (POPTR_0019s02630g). Three biological replicates were performed (TIFF 32964 kb)

Fig. S3

Endogenous GABA levels in poplar roots under the treatments of succinyl phosphonate (0, 50, 100, and 150 µM). Data were analyzed using t test in the SPASS software 19 version. * indicates statistically significant differences between samples with and without treatment (P < 0.05) (TIFF 12827 kb)

Online Resource S1

Detailed experimental methods for RNA-seq and qRT-PCR (DOCX 19 kb)

Table S1

Primers for qRT-PCR (DOCX 17 kb)

Table S2

Summary of sequencing data (XLSX 13 kb)

Table S3

Pearson correlation analysis of FPKM values between replicates for the treatments of poplar under 200-mM NaCl with the application of GABA (XLSX 11 kb)

Table S4

Read counts for differentially expressed genes regulated by GABA in the roots of poplar under 200-mM NaCl (XLSX 564 kb)

Table S5

Differentially expressed genes in poplar roots under 200-mM NaCl with the application of GABA (XLSX 604 kb)

Table S6

Differentially expressed genes for clustering (XLSX 132 kb)

Table S7

GO enrichments for differentially expressed genes regulated by GABA in poplar roots under 200-mM NaCl (XLSX 107 kb)

Table S8

KEGG pathways for differentially expressed genes regulated by GABA in poplar roots under 200-mM NaCl (XLSX 67 kb)

Table S9

Differentially expressed genes involved in hormone synthesis and signal transduction (XLSX 82 kb)

Table S10

qRT-PCR values of selected ABA- and ethylene-related genes regulated by 0-, 0.25-, and 10-mM GABA in poplar roots under 0- and 200-mM NaCl for 6 h. Fold changes were calculated by comparing with 0-mM GABA without salinity. Internal reference gene: UBQL (POPTR_0005s22060g) (DOCX 21 kb)

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Ji, J., Yue, J., Xie, T. et al. Roles of γ-aminobutyric acid on salinity-responsive genes at transcriptomic level in poplar: involving in abscisic acid and ethylene-signalling pathways. Planta 248, 675–690 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-018-2915-9

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