title: Overexpression of aHevea brasiliensis ErbB-3 Binding protein 1Gene Increases Drought Tolerance and Organ Size inArabidopsis.
abstract: Rubber trees are economically important tropical tree species and the major source of natural rubber, which is an essential industrial material. This tropical perennial tree is susceptible to cold stress and other abiotic stresses, especially in the marginal northern tropics. Recent years, the genome sequencing and RNA-seq projects produced huge amount of sequence data, which greatly facilitated the functional genomics study. However, the characterization of individual functional gene is in urgent demands, especially for those involved in stress resistance. Here we identified and characterized the rubber tree geneErbB-3 binding protein 1, which undergoes changes in expression in response to cold, drought stress and ABA treatment.HbEBP1overexpression (OE) inArabidopsisincreased organ size, facilitated root growth and increased adult leaf number by delaying the vegetative-to-reproductive transition. In addition,HbEBP1OE enhanced the resistance of theArabidopsisplants to freezing and drought stress, demonstrating that this gene participates in the regulation of abiotic stress resistance.RD29a, RD22andCYCD3;1expression was also greatly enhanced byHbEBP1OE, which explains its regulatory roles in organ size and stress resistance. The regulation of drought stress resistance is a novel function identified in plantEBP1genes, which expands our understanding of the roles ofEBP1gene in response to the environment. Our results provide information that may lead to the use ofHbEBP1in genetically engineered crops to increase both biomass and abiotic stress resistance.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Rubber Biology, Ministry of Agriculture, Rubber Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Science Danzhou, China.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Rubber Biology, Ministry of Agriculture, Rubber Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Science Danzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Rubber Biology, Ministry of Agriculture, Rubber Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Science Danzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jianshun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Rubber Biology, Ministry of Agriculture, Rubber Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Science Danzhou, China.
authors.forename: Huasun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
keywords: Arabidopsis; ErbB-3 Binding Protein 1; Hevea brasiliensis; cell cycle; drought stress; organ size