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Synergetic modulation of plant cadmium tolerance via MYB75-mediated ROS homeostasis and transcriptional regulation

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MYB75 enhances plant cadmium tolerance by mediating ROS homeostasis and cadmium tolerance-related genes expression.

Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal with biological toxicity, which can be detoxified through chelation and compartmentation in plants. Transcriptional regulation mediates plant Cd tolerance by modulating these processes. However, the mechanism remains to be studied. Our results showed a previously unknown function of MYB75 transcription factor in the regulation of Cd tolerance. Cd exposure stimulates anthocyanin accumulation by raising MYB75 expression. Enhanced Cd tolerance was observed in the MYB75-overexpressing plants, whereas increased Cd sensitivity was found in the MYB75 loss-of-function mutants. Under Cd stress conditions, lower reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were detected in MYB75-overexpressing plants than in wild type plants. In contrast, higher ROS levels were found in MYB75 loss-of-function mutants. Overexpression of MYB75 was associated with increased glutathione (GSH) and phytochelatin (PC) content under Cd exposure. Furthermore, the expression of Cd stress-related gene including ACBP2 and ABCC2 was elevated in MYB75-overexpressing plants, and this upregulation was mediated through the mechanism by which MYB75 directly bind to the promoter of ACBP2 and ABCC2. Our findings reveal an important role for MYB75 in the regulation of plant Cd tolerance via anthocyanin-mediated ROS homeostasis, and through upregulation of Cd stress-related gene at the transcriptional level.

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Acknowledgements

The pap1-D and myb75-c were kindly provided by Prof. Daoxin Xie and Prof. Jinlong Qiu respectively. The 35S: CAT2 and 35S: CAT3 were kindly provided by Prof Mingyi Bai. This work was financially supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/) [32100240 to TZ]; the project of Starting Research Fund from Sichuan Normal University [024341977001].

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 32100240, Starting Research Fund from Sichuan Normal University, 24341977001.

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  1. Ting Zheng and Xingbing Lu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China

    Ting Zheng

  2. Plant Functional Genomics and Bioinformatics Research Center, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China

    Ting Zheng

  3. Key Laboratory of Bio-Resource and Eco-Environment of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Xingbing Lu, Feng Yang & Dawei Zhang

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Xingbing Lu

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  1. Ting Zheng
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Contributions

DWZ conceived and supervised the study. TZ and FY designed experiments and analyzed data. TZ and XBL performed experiments. TZ and DWZ wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dawei Zhang.

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Communicated by Chun-Hai Dong.

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Zheng, T., Lu, X., Yang, F. et al. Synergetic modulation of plant cadmium tolerance via MYB75-mediated ROS homeostasis and transcriptional regulation. Plant Cell Rep 41, 1515–1530 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-022-02871-0

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