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Grafting improves drought stress memory by increasing the P5CS1 gene expression in Brassica rapa

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Abstract

Aims

Plants accumulate proline as a drought-tolerance strategy. However, the effect of grafting on adaptive proline accumulation remains to be discovered.

Methods

Physiological methods were used to compare drought tolerance of turnip (B. rapa subsp. rapa) and rapeseed (B. rapa subsp. oleifera). Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and gene expression analysis were used to reveal epigenetic modifications and transcriptional regulation of the Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase 1 (P5CS1) gene within grafting experiments.

Results

Turnip is more drought tolerant than rapeseed, accompanied by higher expression of P5CS1 gene and more proline accumulation in turnip than in rapeseed. Grafting rapeseed onto turnip improved its drought tolerance. Repeated drought stress induced stress memory in proline accumulation and markedly enhanced P5CS1–2 expression in the rapeseed scion of rapeseed/turnip (scion/rootstock) plants compared to self-grafted rapeseed plants. This accumulation required renewed histone H3K4me3 modification at the P5CS1–2 chromatin.

Conclusions

Grafting rapeseed onto turnip enhanced drought resistance in Brassica rapa through potential signaling between turnip rootstock and rapeseed scion altering epigenetic modification on the P5CS1–2 locus and increasing its transcript level during the stress memory response.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31500221), the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province (No. 2019FB056), the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31590823) and the 13th Five-year Informatization Plan of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XXH13506).

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Author notes

  1. Landi Luo and Yan Zheng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China

    Landi Luo, Yan Zheng, Zean Gao, Qian Chen, Xiangxiang Kong & Yongping Yang

  2. School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650504, China

    Landi Luo

  3. The Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China

    Yan Zheng, Zean Gao, Qian Chen, Xiangxiang Kong & Yongping Yang

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yan Zheng & Zean Gao

Authors
  1. Landi Luo
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  2. Yan Zheng
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  3. Zean Gao
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  4. Qian Chen
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Correspondence to Xiangxiang Kong or Yongping Yang.

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Luo, L., Zheng, Y., Gao, Z. et al. Grafting improves drought stress memory by increasing the P5CS1 gene expression in Brassica rapa. Plant Soil 452, 61–72 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04547-8

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