Affiliation:
1. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
2. Forest Biotechnology Group, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Abstract
Drought has severe effects on plant growth, forest productivity, and survival throughout the world. Understanding the molecular regulation of drought resistance in forest trees can enable effective strategic engineering of novel drought-resistant genotypes of tree species. In this study, we identified a gene, PtrVCS2, encoding a zinc finger (ZF) protein of the ZF-homeodomain transcription factor in Populus trichocarpa (Black Cottonwood) Torr. & A. Gray. ex Hook. Overexpression of PtrVCS2 (OE-PtrVCS2) in P. trichocarpa resulted in reduced growth, a higher proportion of smaller stem vessels, and strong drought-resistance phenotypes. Stomatal movement experiments revealed that the OE-PtrVCS2 transgenics showed lower stomata apertures than wild-type plants under drought conditions. RNA-seq analysis of the OE-PtrVCS2 transgenics showed that PtrVCS2 regulates the expression of multiple genes involved in regulation of stomatal opening and closing, particularly the PtrSULTR3;1-1 gene, and several genes related to cell wall biosynthesis, such as PtrFLA11-12 and PtrPR3-3. Moreover, we found that the water use efficiency of the OE-PtrVCS2 transgenic plants was consistently higher than that of wild type plants when subjected to chronic drought stress. Taken together, our results suggest that PtrVCS2 plays a positive role in improving drought adaptability and resistance in P. trichocarpa.
Funder
the National Key Research and Development Program of China
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Subject
Inorganic Chemistry,Organic Chemistry,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry,Computer Science Applications,Spectroscopy,Molecular Biology,General Medicine,Catalysis
Cited by
4 articles.
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