title: Anastatica hierochuntica, anArabidopsisDesert Relative, Is Tolerant to Multiple Abiotic Stresses and Exhibits Species-Specific and Common Stress Tolerance Strategies with Its Halophytic Relative,Eutrema(Thellungiella)salsugineum.
abstract: The search for novel stress tolerance determinants has led to increasing interest in plants native to extreme environments - so called "extremophytes." One successful strategy has been comparative studies betweenArabidopsis thalianaand extremophyteBrassicaceaerelatives such as the halophyteEutrema salsugineumlocated in areas including cold, salty coastal regions of China. Here, we investigate stress tolerance in the desert species,Anastatica hierochuntica(True Rose of Jericho), a member of the poorly investigated lineage IIIBrassicaceae. We show thatA. hierochunticahas a genome approximately 4.5-fold larger thanArabidopsis, divided into 22 diploid chromosomes, and demonstrate thatA. hierochunticaexhibits tolerance to heat, low N and salt stresses that are characteristic of its habitat. Taking salt tolerance as a case study, we show thatA. hierochunticashares common salt tolerance mechanisms withE. salsugineumsuch as tight control of shoot Na+accumulation and resilient photochemistry features. Furthermore, metabolic profiling ofE. salsugineumandA. hierochunticashoots demonstrates that the extremophytes exhibit both species-specific and common metabolic strategies to cope with salt stress including constitutive up-regulation (under control and salt stress conditions) of ascorbate and dehydroascorbate, two metabolites involved in ROS scavenging. Accordingly,A. hierochunticadisplays tolerance to methyl viologen-induced oxidative stress suggesting that a highly active antioxidant system is essential to cope with multiple abiotic stresses. We suggest thatA. hierochunticapresents an excellent extremophyteArabidopsisrelative model system for understanding plant survival in harsh desert conditions.
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Gil
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Eshel
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shaked
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Yana
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kazachkova
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Asif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eppel
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Aroldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cisneros
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Acuna
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Yitzhak
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gutterman
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Noemi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tel-Zur
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Shimon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rachmilevitch
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fait
authors.affiliation: French Associates Institute for Biotechnology and Agriculture of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Sde Boker, Israel.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barak
keywords: Arabidopsis relatives; Brassicaceae; Eutrema salsugineum; abiotic stress; desert plants; extremophile plants; extremophytes; halophytes