Abstract
Key message
We found that the apple wax related gene played a role in changing plant epidermal permeability and enhancing plant resistance to drought stress by increasing wax accumulation.
Abstract
The content and composition of epidermal wax in plants are affected by genetic and environmental factors. The KCS gene encodes the β-ketoalionyl-CoA synthetase, which is a rate-limiting enzyme in the synthesis of very-long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs). In this study, we identified the MdKCS2 gene from apple as a homolog of Arabidopsis AtKCS2. The KCS protein is localized on the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. MdKCS2 exhibited the highest expression in apple pericarp, and was induced by abiotic stresses, such as drought and salt. Transgenic analysis indicated that the MdKCS2 improved the resistance to abiotic stress in apple calli. Ectopic expression of MdKCS2 in Arabidopsis increased the content of wax in leaves and stems, changed the permeability of cuticle of leaves, and enhanced plant drought resistance.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported Grants from National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFD1000200) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (32072539, 31772275).
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YL conceived and designed research. XL, HG and HJ conducted experiments. XL and CL analyzed data. XL and YL wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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299_2021_2776_MOESM1_ESM.tif
Supplementary file1Supplement Fig. S1 Comparison of conserved motifs of KCS2 proteins. Malus domestica, apple; Pyrus ussuriensis × Pyrus communis, yali pear; Pyrus × bretschneideri, white pear; Prunus persica, almond; Hibiscus syriacus, rose of sharon; Citrus sinensis, orange; Glycine max, soybean; Arabidopsis thaliana, arabidopsis; Ananas comosus, pineapple; Setaria italica, millet; Zea mays, corn (TIF 2639 KB)
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Supplementary file2Supplement Fig. S2 Detection of MdKCS2 transgenic Arabidopsis. (A) PCR detection of MdKCS2 transgenic Arabidopsis. (B) Expression of MdKCS2 in WT and MdKCS2 transgenic Arabidopsis. These values are mean ± SD of three independent replicates. Bars with different letters are significantly different at P < 0.05, according to Tukey test (TIF 92 KB)
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Supplementary file3Supplement Fig. S3 Protein interaction networks predicted for AtKCS2 (A) and MdKCS2 proteins (B). Use STRING online software to predict the network of AtKCS2 (A) and MdKCS2 (B) proteins (TIF 241 KB)
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Lian, XY., Gao, HN., Jiang, H. et al. MdKCS2 increased plant drought resistance by regulating wax biosynthesis. Plant Cell Rep 40, 2357–2368 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02776-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02776-4