Basic leucine zipper transcription factor OsbZIP16 positively regulates drought resistance in rice.
Abiotic stress has been shown to limit the growth, development, and productivity of crops. Here, we characterized the function of a rice bZIP transcription factor OsbZIP16 in drought stress. Expression of OsbZIP16 was dramatically induced under drought conditions. Transient expression and transactivation assays demonstrated that OsbZIP16 was localized in the nucleus and had transactivation activity. At both the seedling and tillering stages, transgenic rice plants overexpressing OsbZIP16 exhibited significantly improved drought resistance, which was positively correlated with the observed expression levels of OsbZIP16. Representative downstream drought-inducible genes were observed to have significantly higher expression levels in transgenic rice plants than in the wild type plants under drought conditions. OsbZIP16 was shown to be induced by exogenous ABA treatment, while overexpression of OsbZIP16 was observed to make transgenic plants more sensitive to ABA than wild type plants were. Transcriptome analysis identified a number of differentially expressed genes between wild type plants and plants overexpressing OsbZIP16, many of which are involved in stress response according to their gene ontologies. Overall, our findings suggest that OsbZIP16 positively regulates drought resistance in rice.
College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China; Peking-Yale Joint Center of Plant Molecular Genetics and Agrobiotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Hao
H
Chen
Peking-Yale Joint Center of Plant Molecular Genetics and Agrobiotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Wei
W
Chen
National Center for Molecular Crop Design, Beijing 100085, China.
Junli
J
Zhou
Peking-Yale Joint Center of Plant Molecular Genetics and Agrobiotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Hang
H
He
College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China.
Liangbi
L
Chen
Peking-Yale Joint Center of Plant Molecular Genetics and Agrobiotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: chenhaodong@pku.edu.cn.
Haodong
H
Chen
Peking-Yale Joint Center of Plant Molecular Genetics and Agrobiotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; National Center for Molecular Crop Design, Beijing 100085, China; Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8104, USA. Electronic address: deng@pku.edu.cn.
Xing Wang
XW
Deng
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D055864:Droughts; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000502:physiology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism*
D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014867:Water