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Cucumber ECERIFERUM1 (CsCER1), which influences the cuticle properties and drought tolerance of cucumber, plays a key role in VLC alkanes biosynthesis

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Abstract

Most land plants have a wax layer which covers their aerial parts to protect them from environmental stresses, such as drought, UV radiation, and pathogenic invasion. The wax biosynthesis has been well studied previously in Arabidopsis, but it still remains elusive in cucumber. Here, we isolated a CER1 homolog CsCER1 in cucumber, and we found that the expression of CsCER1 in the cucumber line 3401 which shows waxy fruit phenotype is much higher than that in the cucumber line 3413 which displays glossy fruit phenotype. Spatial and temporal expression analyses revealed that CsCER1 is specifically expressed in the epidermis where waxes are synthesized, and sub-cellular location showed that CsCER1 protein is localized to the endoplasmic reticulum. The expression of CsCER1 can be induced by low temperature, drought, salt stress and abscisic acid. In addition, abnormal expressions of CsCER1 in transgenic cucumber plants have dramatic effects on very-long-chain (VLC) alkanes biosynthesis, cuticle permeability, and drought resistance. Our data suggested that CsCER1 plays an important role in VLC alkanes biosynthesis in cucumber.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Jianmin Wan (Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences) for providing the ER marker: mCherry-HDEL. Also we thank members of the Professor Ren lab for helpful discussions and technical assistance. WW, HR, and QW designed the experiments, WW performed most of the experiments and wrote the paper along with YZ and KB, XL and JR helped with the in situ hybridization, XG helped with the qRT-PCR, XL helped the subcellular localization, and CX helped with the data analysis. This work was supported by National science & technology research projects of China (2013BAD20B01), National public service sectors (agriculture) project of China (201203003), National high technology research and development program (863) of China (2012AA100103), Innovational Team Program of Beijing Industrial Technology System for Fruit-vegetables (GCTDZJ2014033008) and Scientific & Technological Research Project of Beijing (D131100000713001).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vegetable Science, College of Agronomy and Bio-technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Wenjiao Wang, Chong Xu, Jiaojiao Ren, Xiaofeng Liu, Kezia Black, Xinshuang Gai, Qian Wang & Huazhong Ren

  2. Department of Vegetable Science, Beijing Key Laboratory of Growth and Developmental Regulation for Protected Vegetable Crops, China Agricultural University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Wenjiao Wang, Chong Xu, Jiaojiao Ren, Xiaofeng Liu, Kezia Black, Xinshuang Gai, Qian Wang & Huazhong Ren

  3. Department of Vegetable Science, College of Horticulture, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Zhang

  4. Department of Food Production, Faculty of Food and Agriculture, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad

    Kezia Black

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  1. Wenjiao Wang
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  2. Yan Zhang
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  3. Chong Xu
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Correspondence to Qian Wang or Huazhong Ren.

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Wang, W., Zhang, Y., Xu, C. et al. Cucumber ECERIFERUM1 (CsCER1), which influences the cuticle properties and drought tolerance of cucumber, plays a key role in VLC alkanes biosynthesis. Plant Mol Biol 87, 219–233 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-014-0271-0

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