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A chalcone synthase gene AeCHS from Abelmoschus esculentus regulates flavonoid accumulation and abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Chalcone synthase (CHS) is one of the key enzymes in flavonoid biosynthesis pathway in plants. However, the roles of AeCHS gene from Abelmoschus esculentus in flavonoid accumulation and tolerance to abiotic stresses have not been studied. In this study, the AeCHS gene was cloned from Abelmoschus esculentus. The open reading frame contained 1170 nucleotides encoding 389 amino acids. The coding region of AeCHS was cloned into a binary vector under the control of 35S promoter and then transformed into Arabidopsis to obtain transgenic plants. Overexpression of AeCHS increased the production of downstream flavonoids and the expression of related genes in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway. It also improved resistance to salt and mannitol stresses during seed germination and root development. Further component and enzymatic analyses showed the decreased content of H2O2 and malondialdehyde and the increased activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) in transgenic seedlings. Meanwhile, the expression level of AtSOD and AtPOD genes was up-regulated against salt and osmotic stresses. Together, our finding indicated that changing the expression level of AeCHS in plants alters the accumulation of flavonoids and regulates plantlet tolerance to abiotic stress by maintaining ROS homeostasis. The AeCHS gene has the potential to be used to increase the content of valuable flavonoids and improve the tolerance to abiotic stresses in plants.

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Author contribution statement

Conceived and designed the experiments: FW and XC. Performed the experiments: FW, GR, and FL. Analyzed the data: FW, GR, FL, SQ, YX, BW, YY, BC, and QZ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: FW, GR, FL, SQ, YX, and BW. Wrote the paper: FW and XC.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Natural Science Fund for Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province of China (17KJB210001), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (BK2013256), the Talent Introduction Research Project of Huaiyin Institute of Technology (Z301B16534), the Science and Technology Project of Huai’an City of China (HAN2015001), and the College Student Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province of China (201711049009H).

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  1. Feibing Wang, Gaolei Ren, and Fengsheng Li have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science and Food Engineering, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huai’an, 223003, Jiangsu, China

    Feibing Wang, Gaolei Ren, Fengsheng Li, Sitong Qi, Yan Xu, Bowen Wang, Yulin Yang, Yuxiu Ye, Qing Zhou & Xinhong Chen

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  1. Feibing Wang
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  2. Gaolei Ren
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Correspondence to Feibing Wang or Xinhong Chen.

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Wang, F., Ren, G., Li, F. et al. A chalcone synthase gene AeCHS from Abelmoschus esculentus regulates flavonoid accumulation and abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis. Acta Physiol Plant 40, 97 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-018-2680-1

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