title: Suppression of OsVPE3 Enhances Salt Tolerance by Attenuating Vacuole Rupture during Programmed Cell Death and Affects Stomata Development in Rice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vacuolar processing enzymes (VPEs) are cysteine proteinases that act as crucial mediators of programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. In rice, however, the role of VPEs in abiotic stress-induced PCD remains largely unknown. In this study, we generated OsVPE3 overexpression and suppression transgenic lines to elucidate the function of this gene in rice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Survival rate and chlorophyll retention analyses showed that suppression of OsVPE3 clearly enhanced salt stress tolerance in transgenic rice compared with wild type. Furthermore, fragmentation of genomic DNA was inhibited in plants with down-regulated OsVPE3. Vital staining studies indicated that vacuole rupture occurred prior to plasma membrane collapse during salt-induced PCD. Notably, overexpression of OsVPE3 promoted vacuole rupture, whereas suppression of OsVPE3 attenuated or delayed the disintegration of vacuolar membranes. Moreover, we found that suppression of OsVPE3 caused decreased leaf width and guard cell length in rice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, these results indicated that suppression of OsVPE3 enhances salt tolerance by attenuating vacuole rupture during PCD. Therefore, we concluded that OsVPE3 plays a crucial role in vacuole-mediated PCD and in stomatal development in rice.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wenyun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control, Institute of Virology and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Minjuan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Fu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Mingqiang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhanghui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.|Department of Plant Pathology and Huck Institute of Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Yinong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Muyuan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Genetics and Regenerative Biology, Key Laboratory for Cell and Gene Engineering of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. hwbian@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Hongwu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bian
keywords: OsVPE3; Programmed cell death; Rice; Salt stress; Stomata; Vacuolar processing enzyme