Arsenic (As) is harmful to all living organisms, including humans and plants. To limit As uptake and avoid its toxicity, plants employ systems that regulate the uptake of As from the soil and its translocation from roots to grains. Ubiquitination, a highly conserved post-translational modification (PTM) in all eukaryotes, plays crucial roles in modulating As detoxification mechanisms in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), but little is known about its roles in As tolerance and transport in plants. In this opinion article we review recent findings and suggest that ubiquitination plays a crucial role in regulating As transport in plants. We also propose ideas for future research to explore the importance of ubiquitination for enhancing As tolerance in crops. 相似文献
Research in our laboratory has focused on the analysis of the functions of a variety of enzymes that are involved in the scavenging
of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) such as superoxide radicals (·O
2−
) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Recent work has been on transgenic plants that over-express glutathione S-transferases (GST) that also have glutathione
peroxidase activity. Transgenic tobacco plants that contain gene constructs that encode two different tobacco GST’s had elevated
levels of both GST and GPX activity. Analysis of mature vegetative transgenic tobacco plants that over-express GST/GPX failed
to show any increase in paraquat tolerance or protection from photooxidative stress. However, seeds of these GST/GPX-expressing
tobacco lines are capable of more rapid germination and seedling growth at low temperatures and at elevated salt concentrations.
Reduced levels of lipid peroxidation were noted in GST/GPX-expressing seedling compared to control seedlings under both stressful
and non-stressful conditions. In addition, GST/GPX-expressing seedlings significantly accumulated more oxidized glutathione
(GSSG) than control seedlings during stress. These characteristics clearly indicate that over-expression of GST/GPX in transgenic
seedlings can have substantial effects on their stress tolerance. Furthermore, it appears that this effect is due primarily
to the elevated levels of GPX activity. 相似文献
The accumulation of osmolytes like glycinebetaine (GB) in cell is known to protect organisms against abiotic stresses via osmoregulation or osmoprotection. Transgenic plants engineered to produce GB accumulate very low concentration of GB, which might not be sufficient for osmoregulation. Therefore, other roles of GB like cellular macromolecule protection and ROS detoxification have been suggested as mechanisms responsible for abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic plants. In addition, GB influences expression of several endogenous genes in transgenic plants. The new insights gained about the mechanism of stress tolerance in GB accumulating transgenic plants are discussed. 相似文献
Environmental stresses including climate change, especially global warming, are severely affecting plant growth and productivity worldwide. It has been estimated that two-thirds of the yield potential of major crops are routinely lost due to the unfavorable environmental factors. On the other hand, the world population is estimated to reach about 10 billion by 2050, which will witness serious food shortages. Therefore, crops with enhanced vigour and high tolerance to various environmental factors should be developed to feed the increasing world population. Maintaining crop yields under adverse environmental stresses is probably the major challenge facing modern agriculture where polyamines can play important role. Polyamines (PAs)(putrescine, spermidine and spermine) are group of phytohormone-like aliphatic amine natural compounds with aliphatic nitrogen structure and present in almost all living organisms including plants. Evidences showed that polyamines are involved in many physiological processes, such as cell growth and development and respond to stress tolerance to various environmental factors. In many cases the relationship of plant stress tolerance was noted with the production of conjugated and bound polyamines as well as stimulation of polyamine oxidation. Therefore, genetic manipulation of crop plants with genes encoding enzymes of polyamine biosynthetic pathways may provide better stress tolerance to crop plants. Furthermore, the exogenous application of PAs is also another option for increasing the stress tolerance potential in plants. Here, we have described the synthesis and role of various polyamines in abiotic stress tolerance in plants.Key words: abiotic stress tolerance, putrescine, spermidine, spermine, polyamines相似文献
Plants can''t move away and are therefore continuously confronted with unfavorable environmental conditions (such as soil salinity, drought, heat, cold, flooding and heavy metal contamination). Among heavy metals, cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential and toxic metal, rapidly taken up by roots and accumulated in various plant tissues which hamper the crop growth and productivity worldwide. Plants employ various strategies to counteract the inhibitory effect of Cd, among which nutrient management is one of a possible way to overcome Cd toxicity. Sulfur (S) uptake and assimilation are crucial for determining crop yield and resistance to Cd stress. Cd affects S assimilation pathway which leads to the activation of pathway responsible for the synthesis of cysteine (Cys), a precursor of glutathione (GSH) biosynthesis. GSH, a non-protein thiol acts as an important antioxidant in mitigating Cd-induced oxidative stress. It also plays an important role in phytochelatins (PCs) synthesis, which has a proven role in Cd detoxification. Therefore, S assimilation is considered a crucial step for plant survival under Cd stress. The aim of this review is to discuss the regulatory mechanism of S uptake and assimilation, GSH and PC synthesis for Cd stress tolerance in crop plants.Key words: cadmium, cysteine, glutathione, phytochelatins, stress tolerance, sulfur相似文献
Nutrients have been known to affect stress conditions, in fact, nutrient deprivations are stress conditions for plants itself. Likewise, three important nutrients Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) mediates major stress responses in plants. Here, involvement of K has been discussed briefly in plant stress response along with its impact on plant development. K has been regarded as immensely important nutrient in agriculture, hence, its deficiency triggers various signaling cascades, finally enabling plants to activate stress adaptation responses. So far, K+ has been reported to play pivotal role in various abiotic stresses such as drought, cold, water stresses etc. However, the exact mechanism and interplay of these different abiotic stress regulation by K+ is not completely explored and demand further functional investigations. The in-depth understanding of components involved in K+ sensing, transport, and homeostasis will enable plant biologist to engineer crop varieties tolerant to abiotic stresses and nutrient deficient soil in near future.
In the climate change scenario the drought has been diagnosed as major stress affecting crop productivity. This review demonstrates some recent findings on the amelioration of drought stress. Nanoparticles, synthetic growth regulators viz. Trinexapac-ethyl, and Biochar addition helps to economize the water budget of plants, enhances the bioavailability of water and nutrients as well as overcomes drought induced osmotic and oxidative stresses. Besides ABA, SA and JA are also involved in inducing tolerance to drought stress through modulation of physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) offer new opportunities in agricultural biotechnology. These beneficial microorganisms colonize the rhizosphere/endo-rhizosphere of plants and impart drought tolerance by improving root architechture, enhancing water use efficiency, producing exopolysaccharides, phytohormones viz, ABA, SA and IAA and volatile compounds. Further PGPR also play positive role in combating osmotic and oxidative stresses induced by drought stress through enhancing the accumulation of osmolytes, antioxidants and upregulation or down regulation of stress responsive genes. In transgenic plants stress inducible genes enhanced abiotic stress tolerance by encoding key enzymes regulating biosynthesis of compatible solutes. The role of genes/cDNAs encoding proteins involved in regulating other genes/proteins, signal transduction process and strategies to improve drought stress tolerance have also been discussed. 相似文献
Arsenic is a metalloid that occurs naturally at parts per million (ppm) levels in the earth's crust. Natural and human activities have contributed to arsenic mobilization and increased concentration in the environment, such that World Health Organization guidelines for arsenic levels in drinking water are exceeded at many locations, worldwide. This translates into an increased risk of arsenic-related illnesses for millions of people. Recent studies demonstrate that increasing thiol-sinks in transgenic plants by overexpressing the bacterial gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (ECS) gene results in a higher tolerance and accumulation of metals and metalloids such as cadmium, mercury, and arsenic. We used Agrobacterium-mediated transformation to genetically engineer eastern cottonwood with a bacterial ECS gene. Eastern cottonwood plants expressing ECS had elevated thiol group levels, consistent with increased ECS activity. In addition, these ECS-expressing plants had enhanced growth on levels of arsenate toxic to control plants in vitro. Furthermore, roots of ECS-expressing plants accumulated significantly more arsenic than control roots (approximately twice as much), while shoots accumulated significantly less arsenic than control shoots (approximately two-thirds as much). We discuss potential mechanisms for shifting the balance of plant arsenic distribution from root accumulation to shoot accumulation, as it pertains to arsenic phytoremediation. 相似文献
Environmental stresses considerably limit plant productivity. At the molecular level the negative effect of stress is often
mediated by reactive oxygen species-initiated oxidative damage. Hence, it was hypothesised that increased tolerance to several
environmental constraints could be achieved through enhanced tolerance to oxidative stress. In recent years much effort has
been undertaken to improve oxidative stress tolerance by transforming plants with native or bacterial genes coding either
for reactive oxygen species-scavenging enzymes or for enzymes modulating the cellular antioxidant capacity. This review deals
with data on transgenic plants with altered antioxidant capacity and focuses on the new insight into the antioxidant defence
mechanism given by this type of experimental model. 相似文献