Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Identification and functional characterization of the pepper CaDRT1 gene involved in the ABA-mediated drought stress response

  • Published:
Plant Molecular Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Plants are constantly challenged by various environmental stresses, including high salinity and drought, and they have evolved defense mechanisms to counteract the deleterious effects of these stresses. The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) regulates plant growth and developmental processes and mediates abiotic stress responses. Here, we identified the Capsicum annuum DRought Tolerance 1 (CaDRT1) gene from pepper leaves treated with ABA. CaDRT1 was strongly expressed in pepper leaves in response to environmental stresses and after ABA treatment, suggesting that the CaDRT1 protein functions in the abiotic stress response. Knockdown expression of CaDRT1 via virus-induced gene silencing resulted in a high level of drought susceptibility, and this was characterized by increased transpirational water loss via decreased stomatal closure. CaDRT1-overexpressing (OX) Arabidopsis plants exhibited an ABA-hypersensitive phenotype during the germinative, seedling, and adult stages. Additionally, these CaDRT1-OX plants exhibited a drought-tolerant phenotype characterized by low levels of transpirational water loss, high leaf temperatures, increased stomatal closure, and enhanced expression levels of drought-responsive genes. Taken together, our results suggest that CaDRT1 is a positive regulator of the ABA-mediated drought stress response.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

GFP:

Green fluorescent protein

MS:

Murashige and Skoog

OX:

Overexpressing

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction

SOS:

Stomatal opening solution

TRV:

Tobacco rattle virus

VIGS:

Virus-induced gene silencing

References

  • Apse MP, Blumwald E (2002) Engineering salt tolerance in plants. Curr Opin Biotechnol 13:146–150

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baker SS, Wilhelm KS, Thomashow MF (1994) The 5′-region of Arabidopsis thaliana cor15a has cis-acting elements that confer cold-, drought- and ABA-regulated gene expression. Plant Mol Biol 24:701–713

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coca MA, Damsz B, Yun DJ, Hasegawa PM, Bressan RA, Narasimhan ML (2000) Heterotrimeric G-proteins of a filamentous fungus regulate cell wall composition and susceptibility to a plant PR-5 protein. Plant J 22:61–69

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fujii H, Verslues PE, Zhu JK (2007) Identification of two protein kinases required for abscisic acid regulation of seed germination, root growth, and gene expression in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 19:485–494

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goda H, Sasaki E, Akiyama K, Maruyama-Nakashita A, Nakabayashi K, Li W, Ogawa M, Yamauchi Y, Preston J, Aoki K, Kiba T, Takatsuto S, Fujioka S, Asami T, Nakano T, Kato H, Mizuno T, Sakakibara H, Yamaguchi S, Nambara E, Kamiya Y, Takahashi H, Hirai MY, Sakurai T, Shinozaki K, Saito K, Yoshida S, Shimada Y (2008) The AtGenExpress hormone and chemical treatment data set: experimental design, data evaluation, model data analysis and data access. Plant J 55:526–542

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gou M, Su N, Zheng J, Huai J, Wu G, Zhao J, He J, Tang D, Yang S, Wang G (2009) An F-box gene, CPR30, functions as a negative regulator of the defense response in Arabidopsis. Plant J 60:757–770

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hua ZM, Yang X, Fromm ME (2006) Activation of the NaCl- and drought-induced RD29A and RD29B promoters by constitutively active Arabidopsis MAPKK or MAPK proteins. Plant Cell Environ 29:1761–1770

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jakab G, Ton J, Flors V, Zimmerli L, Metraux JP, Mauch-Mani B (2005) Enhancing Arabidopsis salt and drought stress tolerance by chemical priming for its abscisic acid responses. Plant Physiol 139:267–274

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jeon BW, Hwang JU, Hwang Y, Song WY, Fu Y, Gu Y, Bao F, Cho D, Kwak JM, Yang Z, Lee Y (2008) The Arabidopsis small G protein ROP2 is activated by light in guard cells and inhibits light-induced stomatal opening. Plant Cell 20:75–87

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Jiao Y, Sun L, Song Y, Wang L, Liu L, Zhang L, Liu B, Li N, Miao C, Hao F (2013) AtrbohD and AtrbohF positively regulate abscisic acid-inhibited primary root growth by affecting Ca2+ signalling and auxin response of roots in Arabidopsis. J Exp Bot 64:4183–4192

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph MP, Papdi C, Kozma-Bognar L, Nagy I, Lopez-Carbonell M, Rigo G, Koncz C, Szabados L (2014) The Arabidopsis ZINC FINGER PROTEIN3 interferes with abscisic acid and light signaling in seed germination and plant development. Plant Physiol 165:1203–1220

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kim S, Kang JY, Cho DI, Park JH, Kim SY (2004) ABF2, an ABRE-binding bZIP factor, is an essential component of glucose signaling and its overexpression affects multiple stress tolerance. Plant J 40:75–87

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lang V, Mantyla E, Welin B, Sundberg B, Palva ET (1994) Alterations in water status, endogenous abscisic acid content, and expression of rab18 gene during the development of freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiol 104:1341–1349

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lee SC, Luan S (2012) ABA signal transduction at the crossroad of biotic and abiotic stress responses. Plant Cell Environ 35:53–60

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee SC, Lim CW, Lan W, He K, Luan S (2013) ABA signaling in guard cells entails a dynamic protein-protein interaction relay from the PYL-RCAR family receptors to ion channels. Mol Plant 6:528–538

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lim CW, Lee SC (2014) Functional roles of the pepper MLO protein gene, CaMLO2, in abscisic acid signaling and drought sensitivity. Plant Mol Biol 85:1–10

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lim S, Baek W, Lee SC (2014) Identification and functional roles of CaDIN1 in abscisic acid signaling and drought sensitivity. Plant Mol Biol 86:513–525

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lim CW, Baek W, Jung J, Kim JH, Lee SC (2015a) Function of ABA in stomatal defense against biotic and drought stresses. Int J Mol Sci 16:15251–15270

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lim CW, Han SW, Hwang IS, Kim DS, Hwang BK, Lee SC (2015b) The pepper lipoxygenase CaLOX1 plays a role in osmotic, drought and high salinity stress response. Plant Cell Physiol 56:930–942

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lim CW, Lim S, Baek W, Lee SC (2015c) The pepper late embryogenesis abundant protein CaLEA1 acts in regulating abscisic acid signaling, drought and salt stress response. Physiol Plant 154:526–542

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ma Y, Szostkiewicz I, Korte A, Moes D, Yang Y, Christmann A, Grill E (2009) Regulators of PP2C phosphatase activity function as abscisic acid sensors. Science 324:1064–1068

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mizuno T, Yamashino T (2008) Comparative transcriptome of diurnally oscillating genes and hormone-responsive genes in Arabidopsis thaliana: insight into circadian clock-controlled daily responses to common ambient stresses in plants. Plant Cell Physiol 49:481–487

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Park C, Lim CW, Baek W, Lee SC (2015a) RING type E3 ligase CaAIR1 in pepper acts in the regulation of ABA signaling and drought stress response. Plant Cell Physiol 56:1808–1819

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Park SY, Peterson FC, Mosquna A, Yao J, Volkman BF, Cutler SR (2015b) Agrochemical control of plant water use using engineered abscisic acid receptors. Nature 520:545–548

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder JI, Kwak JM, Allen GJ (2001) Guard cell abscisic acid signalling and engineering drought hardiness in plants. Nature 410:327–330

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schweighofer A, Hirt H, Meskiene I (2004) Plant PP2C phosphatases: emerging functions in stress signaling. Trends Plant Sci 9:236–243

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sharp RE, Poroyko V, Hejlek LG, Spollen WG, Springer GK, Bohnert HJ, Nguyen HT (2004) Root growth maintenance during water deficits: physiology to functional genomics. J Exp Bot 55:2343–2351

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Umezawa T, Sugiyama N, Mizoguchi M, Hayashi S, Myouga F, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Ishihama Y, Hirayama T, Shinozaki K (2009) Type 2C protein phosphatases directly regulate abscisic acid-activated protein kinases in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:17588–17593

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Umezawa T, Sugiyama N, Takahashi F, Anderson JC, Ishihama Y, Peck SC, Shinozaki K (2013) Genetics and phosphoproteomics reveal a protein phosphorylation network in the abscisic acid signaling pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. Sci Signal 6:rs8

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vlad F, Rubio S, Rodrigues A, Sirichandra C, Belin C, Robert N, Leung J, Rodriguez PL, Lauriere C, Merlot S (2009) Protein phosphatases 2C regulate the activation of the Snf1-related kinase OST1 by abscisic acid in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 21:3170–3184

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (2006) Transcriptional regulatory networks in cellular responses and tolerance to dehydration and cold stresses. Annu Rev Plant Biol 57:781–803

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang H, Cui F, Wu Y, Lou L, Liu L, Tian M, Ning Y, Shu K, Tang S, Xie Q (2015) The RING finger ubiquitin E3 ligase SDIR1 targets SDIR1-INTERACTING PROTEIN1 for segradation to modulate the salt stress response and ABA signaling in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 27:214–227

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was carried out with the support of the “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture & Technology Development (Project No. PJ01101001)”, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Author contributions

Woonhee Baek and Sohee Lim performed experiments and participated in data analysis. Sung Chul Lee wrote the manuscript and designed experiments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Science (BK21 Program), Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 156-756, Republic of Korea

    Woonhee Baek, Sohee Lim & Sung Chul Lee

Authors
  1. Woonhee Baek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sohee Lim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sung Chul Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sung Chul Lee.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary Fig. 1

RT-PCR analysis of CaDRT1 expression in leaves of pepper plants transfected with the empty vector control (TRV:00) or CaDRT1-silenced constructs (TRV2:CaDIN1). The CaActin1 gene was used as an internal control (PPTX 182 kb)

Supplementary Fig. 2

RT-PCR analysis of CaDRT1 expression in wild-type (WT) and the CaDRT1-OX transgenic lines. AtActin8 was used as internal control gene (PPTX 526 kb)

Supplementary material 3 (PPTX 70 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Baek, W., Lim, S. & Lee, S.C. Identification and functional characterization of the pepper CaDRT1 gene involved in the ABA-mediated drought stress response. Plant Mol Biol 91, 149–160 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-016-0451-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-016-0451-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation