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OsWRKY28 positively regulates salinity tolerance by directly activating OsDREB1B expression in rice

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Abstract

Key message

OsWRKY28 confers salinity tolerance by directly binding to OsDREB1B promoter and increasing its transcriptional activity, and negatively regulates abscisic acid mediated seedling establishment in rice.

Abstract

WRKY transcription factors have been reported to play a vital role in plants growth, development, abiotic and biotic stress responses. In this study, we explored the functions of a transcription factor OsWRKY28 in rice. The transcript level of OsWRKY28 was strikingly increased under drought, chilling, salt and abscisic acid treatments. The OsWRKY28 overexpression lines showed enhanced salinity stress tolerance, whereas the oswrky28 mutants displayed salt sensitivity compared to wild-type plants. Under salt stress treatment, the expression levels of OsbZIP05, OsHKT1;1 and OsDREB1B were significantly lower yet the level of OsHKT2;1 was significantly higher in oswrky28 mutants than those in wide type plants. Our data of yeast one-hybrid assay and dual-luciferase assay supported that OsWRKY28 could directly bind to the promoter of OsDREB1B to enhance salinity tolerance in rice. In addition, OsWRKY28 overexpression lines displayed hyposensitivity and the oswrky28 mutants showed hypersensitivity compared to wild-type plants under exogenous abscisic acid treatment. Based on the results of yeast two-hybrid assay and GAL4-dependent chimeric transactivation assay, OsWRKY28 physically interacts with OsMPK11 and its transcriptional activity could be regulated by OsMPK11. Together, OsWRKY28 confers salinity tolerance through directly targeting OsDREB1B promoter and further activating its transcription in rice.

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Data availability

Data supporting the findings of this work are available within the article and its Supporting Information files.

Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

cDNA:

Complementary DNA

CDS:

Coding sequence

DREB:

Dehydration responsive element binding

FLUC:

Firefly luciferase

GA:

Gibberellin

MAPK:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase

MS:

Murashige and Skoog

PEG:

Polyethylene glycol

QRT-PCR:

Quantitative reverse transcription PCR

RLUC:

Renilla luciferase

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

TF:

Transcription factors

WT:

Wild type

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Science and Technology Development Plan of Jilin Province, China (20210302008NC) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31701396 and 32101664).

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China, 31701396, Tao Wu, 32101664, Shuangzhan Huang, Jilin Scientific and Technological Development Program, 20210302008NC, Xinglin Du

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Author notes

  1. Mingxing Zhang and Ranran Zhao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jilin Province Engineering Laboratory of Plant Genetic Improvement, College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun, 130062, People’s Republic of China

    Mingxing Zhang, Ranran Zhao, Haitao Wang, Shule Ren, Liyuan Shi, Shuangzhan Huang, Zhiqi Wei, Boya Guo, Jiuyan Jin, Yu Zhong, Mojun Chen, Wenzhu Jiang, Tao Wu & Xinglin Du

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  1. Mingxing Zhang
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Contributions

TW and XD designed the study; ZM, RZ, HW, SR, LS, ZW, BG, and JJ executed the experiments; SH, YZ and MC analyzed the data; ZM and RZ wrote the manuscript; XD, TW, and WJ modified the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wenzhu Jiang, Tao Wu or Xinglin Du.

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Communicated by Zheng-Yi Xu.

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Zhang, M., Zhao, R., Wang, H. et al. OsWRKY28 positively regulates salinity tolerance by directly activating OsDREB1B expression in rice. Plant Cell Rep 42, 223–234 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-022-02950-2

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