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Arabidopsis MKKK20 is involved in osmotic stress response via regulation of MPK6 activity

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Abstract

Plants have developed various regulatory pathways to adapt to environmental stresses. In this study, we identified Arabidopsis MKKK20 as a regulator in the response to osmotic stress. mkkk20 mutants were found to be sensitive to high concentration of salt and showed higher water loss rates than wild-type (WT) plants under dehydration conditions. In addition, mkkk20 mutants showed higher accumulation of superoxide, a reactive oxygen species (ROS), compared to WT plants under high salt condition. In contrast, transgenic plants overexpressing MKKK20 displayed tolerance to salt stress. MKKK20 transcripts were increased by the treatments with NaCl, mannitol, MV, sorbitol, and cold, suggesting that MKKK20 is involved in the response to osmotic, ROS, and cold stresses. In-gel kinase assay showed that MKKK20 regulates the activity of MPK6 under NaCl, cold, and H2O2 treatments. Taken together, our results suggest that MKKK20 might be involved in the response to various abiotic stresses, especially osmotic stress, through its regulation of MPK6 activity.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

MKK:

MPK kinase

MKKK:

MPK kinase kinase

MPK:

Mitogen-activated protein kinase

NBT:

Nitroblue tetrazolium

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2009-0072459) and partly by grants from the Next-Generation BioGreen 21 Program (PJ008173) funded by the Rural Development Administration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology, Pusan National University, Busan, 609-735, Republic of Korea

    Jae-Min Kim, Dong-Hyuk Woo, Sun-Ho Kim, Sun-Young Lee, Hee-Yeon Park, Hye-Yeon Seok & Yong-Hwan Moon

  2. Division of Applied Life Science (BK21 Program), Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Research Center, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 660-701, Republic of Korea

    Sun-Ho Kim & Woo Sik Chung

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  1. Jae-Min Kim
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  2. Dong-Hyuk Woo
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Correspondence to Yong-Hwan Moon.

Additional information

Communicated by J. R. Liu.

J.-M. Kim and D.-H. Woo contributed equally to the article.

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Kim, JM., Woo, DH., Kim, SH. et al. Arabidopsis MKKK20 is involved in osmotic stress response via regulation of MPK6 activity. Plant Cell Rep 31, 217–224 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-011-1157-0

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