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AtHSP17.8 overexpression in transgenic lettuce gives rise to dehydration and salt stress resistance phenotypes through modulation of ABA-mediated signaling

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Transgenic Arabidopsis and lettuce plants overexpressing AtHSP17.8 showed ABA-hypersensitive but abiotic stress-resistant phenotypes. ABA treatment caused a dramatic induction of early ABA-responsive genes in AtHSP17.8 -overexpressing transgenic lettuce.

Abstract

Plant small heat shock proteins function as chaperones in protein folding. In addition, they are involved in responses to various abiotic stresses, such as dehydration, heat and high salinity in Arabidopsis. However, it remains elusive how they play a role in the abiotic stress responses at the molecular level. In this study, we provide evidence that Arabidopsis HSP17.8 (AtHSP17.8) positively regulates the abiotic stress responses by modulating abscisic acid (ABA) signaling in Arabidopsis, and also in lettuce, a heterologous plant when ectopically expressed. Overexpression of AtHSP17.8 in both Arabidopsis and lettuce leads to hypersensitivity to ABA and enhanced resistance to dehydration and high salinity stresses. Moreover, early ABA-responsive genes, ABI1, ABI5, NCED3, SNF4 and AREB2, were rapidly induced in AtHSP17.8-overexpressing transgenic Arabidopsis and lettuce. Based on these data, we propose that AtHSP17.8 plays a crucial role in abiotic stress responses by positively modulating ABA-mediated signaling in both Arabidopsis and lettuce. Moreover, our results suggest that stress-tolerant lettuce can be engineered using the genetic and molecular resources of Arabidopsis.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely appreciate Yun Jeong Na (POSTECH, Korea) for generation of transgenic lettuce. This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Korea (grant 609004–05–4–SB240).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea

    Dae Heon Kim, Zheng-Yi Xu & Inhwan Hwang

  2. Division of Integrative Biosciences and Biotechnology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea

    Inhwan Hwang

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  1. Dae Heon Kim
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  2. Zheng-Yi Xu
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  3. Inhwan Hwang
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Correspondence to Inhwan Hwang.

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Communicated by J. S. Shin.

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Kim, D.H., Xu, ZY. & Hwang, I. AtHSP17.8 overexpression in transgenic lettuce gives rise to dehydration and salt stress resistance phenotypes through modulation of ABA-mediated signaling. Plant Cell Rep 32, 1953–1963 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-013-1506-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-013-1506-2

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