title: The MaASR gene as a crucial component in multiple drought stress response pathways in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Abscisic acid (ABA)-, stress-, and ripening-induced (ASR) proteins are involved in abiotic stress responses. However, the exact molecular mechanism underlying their function remains unclear. In this study, we report that MaASR expression was induced by drought stress and MaASR overexpression in Arabidopsis strongly enhanced drought stress tolerance. Physiological analyses indicated that transgenic lines had higher plant survival rates, seed germination rates, and leaf proline content and lower water loss rates (WLR) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. MaASR-overexpressing lines also showed smaller leaves and reduced sensitivity to ABA. Further, microarray and chromatin immunoprecipitation-based sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis revealed that MaASR participates in regulating photosynthesis, respiration, carbohydrate and phytohormone metabolism, and signal transduction to confer plants with enhanced drought stress tolerance. Direct interactions of MaASR with promoters for the hexose transporter and Rho GTPase-activating protein (RhoGAP) genes were confirmed by electrophoresis mobility shift array (EMSA) analysis. Our results indicate that MaASR acts as a crucial regulator of photosynthesis, respiration, carbohydrate and phytohormone metabolism, and signal transduction to mediate drought stress tolerance.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Resources of Tropical Crops, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, 571101, Hainan, China, fybh_1984@163.com.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Renjun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Yindong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Juhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Caihong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Hongxia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Jianbin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Biyu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics*; D001665:Binding Sites; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D055864:Droughts; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D063990:Gene Ontology; D028521:Musa / Q000235:genetics; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012639:Seeds / Q000187:drug effects; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D000040:Abscisic Acid