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A ramie (Boehmeria nivea) bZIP transcription factor BnbZIP3 positively regulates drought, salinity and heavy metal tolerance

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Abstract

bZIP genes play important roles in the regulation of many developmental and physiological processes and adaptive responses to the environment in plants. In the present study, a novel bZIP gene, designated as BnbZIP3 (Genbank accession number: KP462877), was cloned from ramie plants based on the sequence of Unigene6582 fragment in ramie transcriptome using rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) technique and real-time PCR. Results indicated that BnbZIP3 had a 999-bp open reading frame, encoding a 332 amino acid protein that containing a characteristic bZIP domain, and shared high sequence identities with bZIP factors from other plants. Translational fusion of BnbZIP3 with EGFP showed subcellular localization of the protein in nucleus. Transcripts of BnbZIP3 were found in different tissues of ramie plants. Expression of BnbZIP3 was induced by drought, high salinity and ABA treatments. The promoter of BnbZIP3 contained many cis-acting elements involved in multiple stress responses. Overexpression of BnbZIP3 in transgenic Arabidopsis plants inhibited the growth of roots under normal growth conditions, whereas it improved the growth of roots under dehydration, salinity and heavy metal Cd stress, and increased germination of seeds under drought conditions. Thus, BnbZIP3 may positively regulate stress tolerance and be used to engineer enhanced drought, salt and heavy metal tolerance of ramie varieties or other industrial crops.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

ABF :

ABRE-binding factors

ABRE:

ABA-responsive elements

AREB:

ABRE-binding proteins

BLAST:

Basic local alignment search tool

bZIP:

Basic leucine zipper

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

cDNA:

Complementary DNA

NCBI:

National Center for Biological Information

ORF:

Open reading frame

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

RACE:

Rapid amplification of cDNA ends

RNA:

Ribonucleic acid

RT-PCR:

Real-time PCR

Tail-PCR:

Thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the project of National Natural Science Fund (31 371 704); the National ‘Twelfth 5-Year’ Scientific and Technological Support project (2012BAD20B05-04), Scientific and Technological project of Hunan (2010TP4004-1, 2010FJ2013 and 2012FJ4063).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Institute of Ramie, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, People’s Republic of China

      Chengjian Huang, Jinghua Zhou, Yucheng Jie, Hucheng Xing, Yingli Zhong, Wei She, Weilin Yu & Yushen Ma

    2. Dazhou Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Dazhou, 635000, People’s Republic of China

      Chengjian Huang & Gang Wei

    3. College of Agronomy, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, People’s Republic of China

      Jinghua Zhou, Yucheng Jie, Hucheng Xing, Weilin Yu & Yushen Ma

    4. Hunan Provincial Crop Germplasm Innovation and Utilization Laboratory, Changsha, 410128, People’s Republic of China

      Yucheng Jie, Hucheng Xing, Yingli Zhong & Wei She

    5. College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, People’s Republic of China

      Yingli Zhong

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    1. Chengjian Huang
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    Chengjian Huang and Jinghua Zhou have contributed equally to this work.

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    Huang, C., Zhou, J., Jie, Y. et al. A ramie (Boehmeria nivea) bZIP transcription factor BnbZIP3 positively regulates drought, salinity and heavy metal tolerance. Mol Breeding 36, 120 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-016-0470-2

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