非生物胁迫相关NAC转录因子的结构及功能

NAC是植物特有的一类转录因子,参与植物多个生长发育过程,还参与植物对逆境胁迫的响应。本文对非生物胁迫相关NAC转录因子的结构特征、功能预测、表达特性、在转基因植物中的作用及调控路径进行综述。非生物胁迫相关NAC转录因子具有典型的NAc胁迫亚家族结构特征,根据这些结构特征可以预测其功能;非生物胁迫相关NAc转录因子能响应多种非生物胁迫,其转基因过表达大多能使转基因植物提高一种或几种胁迫耐受性;非生物胁迫相关NAc转录因子有着复杂的调控路径。这些NAc转录因子可用于提高转基因植物的逆境耐受性。     

Induction of abiotic stress tolerance in plants by endophytic microbes

Endophytes are micro‐organisms including bacteria and fungi that survive within healthy plant tissues and promote plant growth under stress. This review focuses on the potential of endophytic microbes that induce abiotic stress tolerance in plants. How endophytes promote plant growth under stressful conditions, like drought and heat, high salinity and poor nutrient availability will be discussed. The molecular mechanisms for increasing stress tolerance in plants by endophytes include induction of plant stress genes as well as biomolecules like reactive oxygen species scavengers. This review may help in the development of biotechnological applications of endophytic microbes in plant growth promotion and crop improvement under abiotic stress conditions.

Significance and Impact of the Study

Increasing human populations demand more crop yield for food security while crop production is adversely affected by abiotic stresses like drought, salinity and high temperature. Development of stress tolerance in plants is a strategy to cope with the negative effects of adverse environmental conditions. Endophytes are well recognized for plant growth promotion and production of natural compounds. The property of endophytes to induce stress tolerance in plants can be applied to increase crop yields. With this review, we intend to promote application of endophytes in biotechnology and genetic engineering for the development of stress‐tolerant plants.     

植物果聚糖的代谢途径及其在植物抗逆中的功能研究进展

植物果聚糖是一类重要的碳水化合物和渗透调节物质,可以提高植物的抗逆性。目前对植物果聚糖代谢酶基因的研究较多,主要包括相关基因的克隆、表达和利用基因工程技术将果聚糖相关代谢基因转入植物中。该文主要介绍了果聚糖的分布、种类、代谢途径及相关基因的克隆和表达,重点阐述了果聚糖在植物抗逆中的作用及其分子生物学研究进展。     

耐盐转基因植物研究进展

高盐是限制作物生长、发育和产量的最严重的非生物胁迫之一。长期以来,改善作物的耐盐性一直是一个伟大的目标。然而,由于耐盐反应是一个极为复杂的过程,过去,通过传统的育种和遗传工程取得的成功有限。近十年来,由于分子生物学的发展,发现了一些与耐盐相关的新基因,对于这些基因的表达方式及其在耐盐反应中的作用已逐步得到了解,这为转基因工程提供了新的材料。通过控制耐盐相关基因在植物体内的表达,已获得了一些提高耐盐性的转基因植物,展示了诱人的前景,但该领域研究仍然存在许多困难和问题,文章重点讨论耐盐转基因植物的进展。     

核黄素参与水稻非生物胁迫响应的分析

为探究核黄素在水稻非生物胁迫响应中的作用,以粳稻Kitaake和籼稻T98B为试验材料,考察了核黄素对2种材料的盐、高温、渗透、碱和氧化胁迫响应的影响,重点测定了盐和高温胁迫下水稻体内核黄素合成基因的表达和相关生理指标。结果表明,(1)施加外源核黄素有效提高了2种水稻材料的盐和高温胁迫耐受性,降低了渗透胁迫耐受性,而其氧化和碱胁迫耐受性不受影响。(2)逆境胁迫均不同程度地促进了核黄素在2种水稻材料中的积累,尤其在盐和高温胁迫下促进效果最明显。(3)盐和高温胁迫均诱导了核黄素合成酶基因的表达,促进了核黄素的生物合成,改善了水稻的胁迫耐受性。研究表明,非生物逆境胁迫能促进核黄素在水稻体内的合成和积累,外源核黄素也能明显提高水稻对盐和高温胁迫的耐受性,但却降低了其对渗透胁迫的耐受性。     

植物逆境胁迫抗性的功能基因组研究策略

植物对逆境胁迫抗性的功能基因组研究主要是寻找胁迫抗性位点在相关物种基因组中的保守位置,发现胁迫反应中的高度保守序列,确定植物胁迫反应的调控机理,进而得到植物对逆境胁迫抗性的关键代谢途径和其中的关键调控因子,为进一步选择用于改良植物对逆境胁迫抗性的关键基因奠定基础。本文从主要模式植物(苔藓类植物、复苏植物、盐土植物和甜土植物)、主要技术策略(基因的差异表达分析、基因表达序列标签、cDNA芯片技术。基因表达序列分析和基因敲除和突变体筛选分析)和生物信息学方法(数据分析的生物信息学方法设计到序列比较、比较基因组学、电子克隆)等三个方面对国内外植物逆境胁迫抗性的功能基因组研究策略作了全面综述。     

Glycinebetaine protects plants against abiotic stress: mechanisms and biotechnological applications

Various compatible solutes enable plants to tolerate abiotic stress, and glycinebetaine (GB) is one of the most-studied among such solutes. Early research on GB focused on the maintenance of cellular osmotic potential in plant cells. Subsequent genetically engineered synthesis of GB-biosynthetic enzymes and studies of transgenic plants demonstrated that accumulation of GB increases tolerance of plants to various abiotic stresses at all stages of their life cycle. Such GB-accumulating plants exhibit various advantageous traits, such as enlarged fruits and flowers and/or increased seed number under non-stress conditions. However, levels of GB in transgenic GB-accumulating plants are relatively low being, generally, in the millimolar range. Nonetheless, these low levels of GB confer considerable tolerance to various stresses, without necessarily contributing significantly to cellular osmotic potential. Moreover, low levels of GB, applied exogenously or generated by transgenes for GB biosynthesis, can induce the expression of certain stress-responsive genes, including those for enzymes that scavenge reactive oxygen species. Thus, transgenic approaches that increase tolerance to abiotic stress have enhanced our understanding of mechanisms that protect plants against such stress.     

A step towards understanding plant responses to multiple environmental stresses: a genome‐wide study

In natural habitats, especially in arid areas, plants are often simultaneously exposed to multiple abiotic stresses, such as salt, osmotic and heat stresses. However, most analyses of gene expression in stress responses examine individual stresses. In this report, we compare gene expression in individual and combined stresses. We show that combined stress treatments with salt, mannitol and heat induce a unique pattern of gene expression that is not a simple merge of the individual stress responses. Under multiple stress conditions, expression of most heat and salt stress‐responsive genes increased to levels similar to or higher than those measured in single stress conditions, but osmotic stress‐responsive genes increased to lower levels. Genes up‐regulated to higher levels under multiple stress condition than single stress conditions include genes for heat shock proteins, heat shock regulators and late embryogenesis abundant proteins (LEAs), which protect other proteins from damage caused by stresses, suggesting their importance in multiple stress condition. Based on this analysis, we identify candidate genes for engineering crop plants tolerant to multiple stresses.     

Hydrogen sulfide regulates abiotic stress tolerance and biotic stress resistance in Arabidopsis

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is an important gaseous molecule in various plant developmental processes and plant stress responses. In this study, the transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants with modulated exp...     

Sequence similarity based identification of abiotic stress responsive genes in chickpea

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important food legume crop, particularly for the arid regions including Indian subcontinent. Considering the detrimental effect of drought, temperature and salt stress on crop yield, efforts have been initiated in the direction of developing improved varieties and designing alternate strategies to sustain chickpea production in adverse environmental conditions. Identification of genes that confer abiotic stress tolerance in plants remains a challenge in contemporary plant breeding. The present study focused on the identification of abiotic stress responsive genes in chickpea based on sequence similarity approach exploiting known abiotic stress responsive genes from model crops or other plant species. Ten abiotic stress responsive genes identified in other plants were partially amplified from eight chickpea genotypes and their presence in chickpea was confirmed after sequencing the PCR products. These genes have been functionally validated and reported to play significant role in stress response in model plants like Arabidopsis, rice and other legume crops. Chickpea EST sequences available at NCBI EST database were used for the identification of abiotic stress responsive genes. A total of 8,536 unique coding long sequences were used for identification of chickpea homologues of these abiotic stress responsive genes by sequence similarity search (BLASTN and BLASTX). These genes can be further explored towards achieving the goal of developing superior chickpea varieties providing improved yields under stress conditions using modern molecular breeding approaches.     

逆境相关植物锌指蛋白的研究进展

锌是植物必需的营养元素,锌指蛋白因其具有指状结构特征且能结合Zn2 而得名,植物锌指蛋白包含特有的QALGGH保守结构,可能涉及调控植物特有的生物学功能。人们已经从拟南芥(Arabidopsis thaliana)、矮牵牛(Petunia hybrida Vilm)、水稻(Oryza sativa)、大豆(Glycine max)、棉花(Gossypium hirsutum)等植物中克隆了许多编码锌指蛋白的基因,并对其结构及功能进行了研究。利用转基因技术,将一些与逆境胁迫相关的锌指蛋白基因在目标植物中过量表达后,能对植物起到增强抗逆性的作用,说明锌指蛋白在增强植物逆境抗性方面有着广阔的应用前景。