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Enhancement of abiotic stress tolerance in poplar by overexpression of key Arabidopsis stress response genes, AtSRK2C and AtGolS2

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Abstract

Recent environmental issues have increased the demand for woody biomass as a renewable resource for industry and energy. For a stable supply of woody biomass, it is critical to decrease the effects of abiotic stresses, such as drought and salinity, which hinder plant growth. For the goal to develop practical stress-tolerant trees, we generated transgenic poplar plants (P. tremula × tremuloides), in which a key Arabidopsis regulatory factor involved in stress responses, SNF1-related protein kinase 2C (AtSRK2C), or galactinol synthase 2 (AtGolS2), was overexpressed. Both types of transgenic poplar plants displayed higher tolerance to abiotic stresses, in comparison with nontransgenic plants, indicating that AtSRK2C and AtGolS2 can function in the abiotic stress response pathway of poplar. We also examined the expression profiles of ten poplar genes putatively homologous to well-known Arabidopsis stress response genes and found that several of the poplar genes showed different responses to abiotic stress from their Arabidopsis counterparts. Whereas the overexpression of AtSRK2C in transgenic Arabidopsis plants was reported to upregulate the expression of endogenous genes, the overexpression of AtSRK2C or AtGolS2 in transgenic poplar did not. Taken together, our findings suggest that the details of the underlying molecular mechanisms of the abiotic stress response may differ, but that the key regulatory factors in Arabidopsis and poplar have common features and are effective molecular targets for further breeding to enhance abiotic stress tolerance in poplar.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

DREB:

Dehydration-responsive element binding

GC-MS:

Gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry

GolS:

Galactinol synthase 2

LEA:

Late embryogenesis abundant

RFO:

Raffinose family oligosaccharide

RT-PCR:

Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction

SRK2C:

SNF1-related protein kinase 2C

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ms. Ayumi Ihara, Ms. Arika Takebayashi, and Mr. Makoto Kobayashi (RIKEN) for their excellent technical assistance and Ms. Akiko Sato and Ms. Kayo Kitaura (RIKEN) for propagating the poplar trees. This work was supported in part by the RIKEN Biomass Engineering Program and RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science.

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Author notes

  1. Nobuyuki Nishikubo

    Present address: Forest Technology Laboratories, Oji Holdings Corporation, Tokyo, 135-8558, Japan

  2. Taishi Umezawa

    Present address: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, 184-8588, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 230-0045, Japan

    Xiang Yu, Misato Ohtani, Miyako Kusano, Kazuki Saito, Kazuo Shinozaki & Taku Demura

  2. Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0192, Japan

    Misato Ohtani, Misa Uenoyama & Taku Demura

  3. RIKEN Plant Science Center, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 230-0045, Japan

    Nobuyuki Nishikubo & Taishi Umezawa

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  1. Xiang Yu
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  2. Misato Ohtani
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Correspondence to Taku Demura.

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Yu, X., Ohtani, M., Kusano, M. et al. Enhancement of abiotic stress tolerance in poplar by overexpression of key Arabidopsis stress response genes, AtSRK2C and AtGolS2 . Mol Breeding 37, 57 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-016-0618-0

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