GSE122021
A novel positive feed-back loop mediated by the membrane-associated transcription factor NTL3  is important for heat stress tolerance in rice
Global warming has great impacts on plant growth and development. Heat shock transcription factors are the master regulators of heat stress response to alleviate protein misfolding in the cytosol in plants. However, how plants deal with accumulation of misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) under heat stress conditions is less understood, especially in crops such as in rice. Here we report a positive feed-back loop mediated by the membrane-associated transcription factors NTL3 and bZIP74 in heat stress response in rice. In response to heat stress, the ER-membrane-associated bZIP74 is activated and up-regulate the expression of NTL3 in rice; NTL3 encodes an ER-membrane-associated transcription factor that is activated and regulate downstream genes including bZIP74 involved in protein folding and reactive oxygen species scavenging. Loss-of-function mutations of NTL3 are sensitive to heat stress while inducible expression of the processed form of NTL3 increases heat stress tolerance in rice seedlings. Our work reveals the important role of NTL3 in ER stress response for heat stress tolerance in rice. Overall design: Rice seedling (8 days after germination) mRNA profiles of wild type (WT) and NTL3-edited plants were generated with or without heat treatment by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using Illumina HiSeq 2000.