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Molecular characterization and expression analysis of small heat shock protein 17.3 gene from Sorbus pohuashanensis (Hance) Hedl. in response to abiotic stress

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Abstract

Sorbus pohuashanensis, a native tree species in China that is distributed at high altitudes. However, the problem of adaptability when introducing S. pohuashanensis to low altitude areas has not been solved. sHSPs can respond and play an essential role when exposing to abiotic stresses for plants. In this study, we aimed to investigate the expression patterns underlying the abiotic stress response of the small heat shock protein 17.3 gene from S. pohuashanensis (SpHSP17.3) at growing low altitude. 1 to 4 years old seedlings of S. pohuashanensis were used as materials for the gene cloning, the tissue-specific expression and the expression analysis underlying the response to abiotic stress using the transgentic methods and qPCR. We identified the open reading frame (ORF) sequence of SpHSP17.3 of 471 bp, which encodes a 17.3 kD protein of 156 amino acids that is located in cytoplasmic. We found that SpHSP17.3 had the highest expression in the stem, followed sequentially by fruit, root, and flower. The expression level of SpHSP17.3 in the leaves was significantly induced by the high temperature (42 °C), NaCl salt and drought stress of S. pohuashanensis. Notably, the same SpHSP17.3 expression trend was detected in the SpHSP17.3-overexpressing homozygous transgenic Arabidopsis underlying the high temperature, NaCl salt and drought stress, and the SpHSP17.3-overexpressing homozygous transgenic Arabidopsis also showed higher seed germination rates under the NaCl salt stress conditions. Our results suggested that SpHSP17.3 is involved in the response to high temperature, Nacl salt, and drought stress which would play a certain effect in the adaptability of introduction and domestication of S. pohuashanensis.

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Abbreviations

HSPs:

Heat shock proteins

sHSPs:

small HSPs

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

ABA:

Abscisic acid

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

qPCR:

Fluorescence quantitative PCR

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the National Forest Genetic Resources Platform (NFGRP) for providing the S. pohuashanensis plant resources. We also would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing. This research was funded by “the National Natural Science Foundation Project of China (No. 31770369) and Building Project of Beijing Laboratory of Urban and Rural Ecological Environment (No. PXM2015-014207-000014)”.

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  1. Ze Zhang and Xin Pei contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, 102206, China

    Ze Zhang, Xin Pei, Ruili Zhang & Jian Zheng

  2. Shandong Provincial Center of Forest Tree Germplasm Resources, Jinan, 250102, Shandong Province, China

    Yizeng Lu

  3. Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, China

    Yongqi Zheng

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  1. Ze Zhang
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Contributions

ZZ performed the experiments and bioinformatics analysis and drafted the manuscript. XP performed the real-time qRT-PCR experiments of transgenic Arabidopsis; RZ and YL planted the sampling plants; JZ critically evaluated the protocol and data and revised the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jian Zheng.

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11033_2020_6020_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 71 kb) Supplementary Materials Fig. S1: The amplified bands of SpHSP17.3 genes in cDNA, DNA, and recombinant pTOPO-T plasmid. 1-3, the amplified bands of SpHSP 17.3 with cDNA, DNA, pTOPO-SpHSP17.3 as template, respectively. Fig. S2: Homology amino acid sequences alignment of SpHSP17.3. MdHSP17.3, M. domestica; PbHSP17.9, Pyrus x bretschneideri; EjsHSP4, E. japonica; PsHSP17.1, P. salicina; PaHSP17.1, P. avium; PpHSP17.1, P. persica; PdsHSP, P. dulcis; PmHSP17.1, P. mume; HbHSP17.9, H. brasiliensis; PtHSP17.9, P. trichocarpa. Fig. S3: Phylogenetic tree analysis of SpHSP17.3 with other HSP20 from model plant species. CI-CVI, cytosol Is-VIs; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; PX, peroxisomes; CP, chloroplasts; MI, mitochondria; MII, mitochondria IIs. Fig. S4: Protein secondary structure prediction of SpHSP17.3. h, Alpha helix; c, Random coil; e, Extended strand; t, Beta turn. Fig. S5: Prediction of phosphorylation sites of SpHSP17.3. Fig. S6: Identification of SpHSP17.3 transgenic Arabidopsis lines using PCR analysis with gDNA as a template. Fig. S7: Identification of the three SpHSP17.3-overexpressing homozygous transgenic Arabidopsis lines using PCR analysis with cDNA as a template; Fig. S8: Phenotype of SpHSP17.3-overexpressing homozygous transgenic Arabidopsis lines and wild type under abiotic stress. A, Seedling root under 8% mannitol conditions; B, Seedling root under 130 mM NaCl conditions; C, Phenotype under 42 °C after 12 h; D, Phenotype under 150 mM NaCl after three days. Table S1: Primer sequences for Sorbus pohuashanensis HSP17.3 cloning and expression. Table S2: Similarity and identity of the Sorbus pohuashanensis HSP17.3 (SpHSP17.3) amino acid sequence with HSP20 from other plant species. Table S3: Amino acid sequence of sHSPs from different subgroups of model species.

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Zhang, Z., Pei, X., Zhang, R. et al. Molecular characterization and expression analysis of small heat shock protein 17.3 gene from Sorbus pohuashanensis (Hance) Hedl. in response to abiotic stress. Mol Biol Rep 47, 9325–9335 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-06020-2

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