Abstract
Salt stress is one of the major factors limiting plant growth and productivity. Many studies have shown that serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) gene play an important role in growth, development and stress response in plants. However, to date, there have been few studies on whether SHMT3 can enhance salt tolerance in plants. Therefore, the effects of overexpression or silencing of CsSHMT3 gene on cucumber seedling growth under salt stress were investigated in this study. The results showed that overexpression of CsSHMT3 gene in cucumber seedlings resulted in a significant increase in chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate and proline (Pro) content, and antioxidant enzyme activity under salt stress condition; whereas the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide anion (H2O2), hydrogen peroxide (O2·−) and relative conductivity were significantly decreased when CsSHMT3 gene was overexpressed. However, the content of chlorophyll and Pro, photosynthetic rate, and antioxidant enzyme activity of the silenced CsSHMT3 gene lines under salt stress were significantly reduced, while MDA, H2O2, O2·− content and relative conductivity showed higher level in the silenced CsSHMT3 gene lines. It was further found that the expression of stress-related genes SOD, CAT, SOS1, SOS2, NHX, and HKT was significantly up-regulated by overexpressing CsSHMT3 gene in cucumber seedlings; while stress-related gene expression showed significant decrease in silenced CsSHMT3 gene seedlings under salt stress. This suggests that overexpression of CsSHMT3 gene increased the salt tolerance of cucumber seedlings, while silencing of CsSHMT3 gene decreased the salt tolerance. In conclusion, CsSHMT3 gene might positively regulate salt stress tolerance in cucumber and be involved in regulating antioxidant activity, osmotic adjustment, and photosynthesis under salt stress.
Key message
CsSHMT3 gene may positively regulate the expression of osmotic system, photosynthesis, antioxidant system and stress-related genes in cucumber.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 32072559, 31860568, 32360743); the Fostering Foundation for the Excellent PH.D. Dissertation of Gansu Agricultural University (YB2022004); the Key Research and Development Program of Gansu Province, China (No. 21YF5WA096); the National Key Research and Development Program (2018YFD1000800); the Research Fund of Higher Education of Gansu, China (No. 2018 C-14 and 2019B-082); the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province, China (Nos. 1606RJZA073, 1606RJZA077, and 1606RJYA252).
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The authors WBL contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection was performed by ZHZ, XMH, YHL, ZQD, YH, KDY, YDY, and CL. ZHZ and RG were involved in the experiments and data analysis. ZHZ wrote the first draft of the manuscript. WBL revised the manuscript to present form. All authors read and approved the same for publication.
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Zhang, Z., Hou, X., Gao, R. et al. CsSHMT3 gene enhances the growth and development in cucumber seedlings under salt stress. Plant Mol Biol 114, 52 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-024-01451-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-024-01451-y