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OsbZIP71, a bZIP transcription factor, confers salinity and drought tolerance in rice

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A Correction to this article was published on 26 June 2018

Abstract

The bZIP transcription factor (TF) family plays an important role in the abscisic acid (ABA) signaling pathway of abiotic stress in plants. We here report the cloning and characterization of OsbZIP71, which encodes a rice bZIP TF. Functional analysis showed that OsbZIP71 is a nuclear-localized protein that specifically binds to the G-box motif, but has no transcriptional activity both in yeast and rice protoplasts. In yeast two-hybrid assays, OsbZIP71 can form both homodimers and heterodimers with Group C members of the bZIP gene family. Expression of OsbZIP71 was strongly induced by drought, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and ABA treatments, but repressed by salt treatment. OsbZIP71 overexpressing (p35S::OsbZIP71) rice significantly improved tolerance to drought, salt and PEG osmotic stresses. In contrast, RNAi knockdown transgenic lines were much more sensitive to salt, PEG osmotic stresses, and also ABA treatment. Inducible expression (RD29A::OsbZIP71) lines were significantly improved their tolerance to PEG osmotic stresses, but hypersensitivity to salt, and insensitivity to ABA. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that the abiotic stress-related genes, OsVHA-B, OsNHX1, COR413-TM1, and OsMyb4, were up-regulated in overexpressing lines, while these same genes were down-regulated in RNAi lines. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis confirmed that OsbZIP71 directly binds the promoters of OsNHX1 and COR413-TM1 in vivo. These results suggest that OsbZIP71 may play an important role in ABA-mediated drought and salt tolerance in rice.

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Abbreviations

bZIP:

Basic leucine zipper

OsCAT :

Rice catalase isozyme A

OsVHA-B :

Rice vacuolar-ATPase subunit B

OsNHX :

Rice Na+/H+ antiporter

OsCLC1 :

Rice Cl-channel

OsHKT :

Rice high-affinity potassium transporter

OsPP15 :

Rice protein phosphatase 15

COR413-TM1 :

Cold acclimation protein 413-TM1

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank Mr. Gupo Li for his kindly caring our plants in the field. This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2010 No. 31071378), the Agricultural Ministry of China (2011ZX08009-003-002), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2013 No. 31271680).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research (Beijing), Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Citao Liu, Shujun Ou, Wei Wang, Linchuan Liu & Chengcai Chu

  2. National Center for Molecular Crop Design, Weiming Kaituo Agriculture Biotech Co., Ltd, Beijing, 100085, China

    Yanbin Wu & Xiping Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, Changsha, 410125, China

    Bigang Mao

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  1. Citao Liu
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  2. Bigang Mao
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  3. Shujun Ou
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  4. Wei Wang
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  5. Linchuan Liu
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  6. Yanbin Wu
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  7. Chengcai Chu
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Correspondence to Chengcai Chu or Xiping Wang.

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Citao Liu, Bigang Mao and Shujun Ou have contributed equally to this work.

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Liu, C., Mao, B., Ou, S. et al. OsbZIP71, a bZIP transcription factor, confers salinity and drought tolerance in rice. Plant Mol Biol 84, 19–36 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-013-0115-3

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