AtUSP17 negatively regulates salt stress tolerance through modulation of multiple signaling pathways in Arabidopsis.

AtUSP17 is a multiple stress-inducible gene that encodes a universal stress protein (USP) in Arabidopsis thaliana. In the present study, we functionally characterized AtUSP17 using its knock-down mutant, Atusp17, and AtUSP17-overexpression lines (WTOE). The overexpression of AtUSP17 in wild-type and Atusp17 mutant Arabidopsis plants resulted in higher sensitivity to salt stress during seed germination than WT and Atusp17 mutant lines. In addition, the WTOE and FC lines exhibited higher abscisic acid (ABA) sensitivity than Atusp17 mutant during germination. The exogenous application of ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) was able to rescue the salt hypersensitive phenotype of WTOE lines. In contrast, AgNO3 , an ethylene action inhibitor, further blocked the effect of ACC during germination. The addition of ACC under salt stress resulted in reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, expression of ABA-responsive genes, improved proline synthesis, increased expression of positive regulators of ethylene signaling and antioxidant defense genes with enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities. The WTOE lines exhibited salt sensitivity even at the adult plant stage, while Atusp17 mutant exhibited higher salt tolerance with higher chlorophyll, relative water content and lower electrolyte leakage as compared with WT. The BAR interaction viewer database and available literature mining identified AtUSP17-interacting proteins, which include RGS1, RACK1C and PRN1 involved in G-protein signaling, which play a crucial role in salt stress responses. Based on the present study and available literature, we proposed a model in which AtUSP17 negatively mediates salt tolerance in Arabidopsis through modulation of ethylene, ABA, ROS, and G-protein signaling and responses.

Transcriptome and Co-Expression Network Analyses Identify Key Genes Regulating Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Brassica juncea L.

Nitrate is the main source of inorganic nitrogen for plants, which also act as signaling molecule. Present study was aimed to understand nitrate regulatory mechanism in Brassica juncea cultivars, with contrasting nitrogen-use-efficiency (NUE) viz. Pusa Bold (PB, high-NUE) and Pusa Jai Kisan (PJK, low-NUE), employing RNA-seq approach. A total of 4031, 3874 and 3667 genes in PB and 2982, 2481 and 2843 genes in PJK were differentially expressed in response to early, low (0.25 mM KNO3), medium (2 mM KNO3) and high (4 mM KNO3) nitrate treatments, respectively, as compared to control (0 mM KNO3). Genes of N-uptake (NRT1.1, NRT1.8, and NRT2.1), assimilation (NR1, NR2, NiR, GS1.3, and Fd-GOGAT) and remobilization (GDH2, ASN2-3 and ALaT) were highly-upregulated in PB than in PJK in response to early nitrate treatments. We have also identified transcription factors and protein kinases that were rapidly induced in response to nitrate, suggesting their involvement in nitrate-mediated signaling. Co-expression network analysis revealed four nitrate specific modules in PB, enriched with GO terms like, "Phenylpropanoid pathway", "Nitrogen compound metabolic process" and "Carbohydrate metabolism". The network analysis also identified HUB transcription factors like mTERF, FHA, Orphan, bZip and FAR1, which may be the key regulators of nitrate-mediated response in B. juncea.

The Promoter of AtUSP Is Co-regulated by Phytohormones and Abiotic Stresses in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Universal stress proteins (USPs) are known to be expressed in response to various abiotic stresses in a wide variety of organisms, such as bacteria, archaebacteria, protists, algae, fungi, plants, and animals. However, in plants, biological function of most of the USPs still remains obscure. In the present study, Arabidopsis USP gene (AtUSP) showed induction in response to abscisic acid (ABA) and various abiotic stresses viz. heat, dehydration, salt, osmotic, and cold stresses. Additionally, in silico analysis of AtUSP promoter identified several cis-elements responsive to phytohormones and abiotic stresses such as ABRE, ERE, DRE, and HSE, etc. To functionally validate the AtUSP promoter, the 1115 bp region of promoter was characterized under phytohormone and abiotic stress treatments. Deletion analysis of promoter was carried out by cloning the full length promoter (D0) and its three 5' deletion derivatives, D1 (964 bp), D2 (660 bp), and D3 (503 bp) upstream of the ß-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene, which were then stably transformed in Arabidopsis plants. The AtUSP promoter (D0) showed minimal activity under non-stress conditions which was enhanced in response to phytohormone treatments (ABA and ACC) and abiotic stresses such as dehydration, heat, cold, salt, and osmotic stresses. The seedlings harboring D1 and D2 deletion fragments showed constitutive GUS expression even under control condition with increased activity almost under all the treatments. However, D3 seedlings exhibited complete loss of activity under control condition with induction under ACC treatment, dehydration, heat, oxidative, salt, and osmotic stresses. Thus, present study clearly showed that AtUSP promoter is highly inducible by phytohormones and multiple abiotic stresses and it can be exploited as stress inducible promoter to generate multi-stress tolerant crops with minimal effects on their other important traits.

Carbon: Nitrogen Interaction Regulates Expression of Genes Involved in N-Uptake and Assimilation in Brassica juncea L.

In plants, several cellular and metabolic pathways interact with each other to regulate processes that are vital for their growth and development. Carbon (C) and Nitrogen (N) are two main nutrients for plants and coordination of C and N pathways is an important factor for maintaining plant growth and development. In the present work, influence of nitrogen and sucrose (C source) on growth parameters and expression of genes involved in nitrogen transport and assimilatory pathways was studied in B. juncea seedlings. For this, B. juncea seedlings were treated with four combinations of C and N source viz., N source alone (-Suc+N), C source alone (+Suc-N), with N and C source (+Suc+N) or without N and C source (-Suc-N). Cotyledon size and shoot length were found to be increased in seedlings, when nitrogen alone was present in the medium. Distinct expression pattern of genes in both, root and shoot tissues was observed in response to exogenously supplied N and C. The presence or depletion of nitrogen alone in the medium leads to severe up- or down-regulation of key genes involved in N-uptake and transport (BjNRT1.1, BjNRT1.8) in root tissue and genes involved in nitrate reduction (BjNR1 and BjNR2) in shoot tissue. Moreover, expression of several genes, like BjAMT1.2, BjAMT2 and BjPK in root and two genes BjAMT2 and BjGS1.1 in shoot were found to be regulated only when C source was present in the medium. Majority of genes were found to respond in root and shoot tissues, when both C and N source were present in the medium, thus reflecting their importance as a signal in regulating expression of genes involved in N-uptake and assimilation. The present work provides insight into the regulation of genes of N-uptake and assimilatory pathway in B. juncea by interaction of both carbon and nitrogen.