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Overexpression of TaHSF3 in Transgenic Arabidopsis Enhances Tolerance to Extreme Temperatures

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Abstract

Heat shock factors (HSFs) in plants regulate heat stress response by mediating expression of a set of heat shock protein (HSP) genes. In the present study, we isolated a novel heat shock gene, TaHSF3, encoding a protein of 315 amino acids in wheat. Phylogenetic analysis showed that TaHSF3 belonged to HSF class B2. Subcellular localization analysis indicated that TaHSF3 localized in nuclei. TaHSF3 was highly expressed in wheat spikes and showed intermediate expression levels in roots, stems, and leaves under normal conditions. It was highly upregulated in wheat seedlings by heat and cold and to a lesser extent by drought and NaCl and ABA treatments. Overexpression of TaHSF3 in Arabidopsis enhanced tolerance to extreme temperatures. Frequency of survival of three TaHSF3 transgenic Arabidopsis lines was 75–91 % after heat treatment and 85–95 % after freezing treatment compared to 25 and 10 %, respectively, in wild-type plants (WT). Leaf chlorophyll contents of the transformants were higher (0.52–0.67 mg/g) than WT (0.35 mg/g) after heat treatment, and the relative electrical conductivities of the transformants after freezing treatment were lower (from 17.56 to 18.6 %) than those of WT (37.5 %). The TaHSF3 gene from wheat therefore confers tolerance to extreme temperatures in transgenic Arabidopsis by activating HSPs, such as HSP70.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

abscisic acid

DBD:

DNA-binding domain

HSE:

heat shock element

HSF:

heat shock factor

HSP:

heat shock protein

NLS:

nuclear localization signal domain

QRT-PCR:

quantitative real-time PCR

WT:

wild type

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31171546) and the National Transgenic Key Project of MOA (2011ZX08002-002). We are grateful to Drs. Ruilian Jing (Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences), for providing wheat seeds, and RA McIntosh (Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney), for critically reading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agriculture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China

    Shuangxi Zhang, Pansong Li & Gaisheng Zhang

  2. Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)/National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Triticeae Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing, 100081, China

    Shuangxi Zhang, Zhao-Shi Xu, Le Yang, Ming Chen, Liancheng Li & Youzhi Ma

  3. Institute of Crop Science, Ningxia Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yongning, Ningxia, 750105, China

    Shuangxi Zhang & Yiqin Wei

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  1. Shuangxi Zhang
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  2. Zhao-Shi Xu
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Correspondence to Zhao-Shi Xu or Gaisheng Zhang.

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Zhang, S., Xu, ZS., Li, P. et al. Overexpression of TaHSF3 in Transgenic Arabidopsis Enhances Tolerance to Extreme Temperatures. Plant Mol Biol Rep 31, 688–697 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-012-0546-z

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