International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Apr 2022)

<i>TaNBR1</i>, a Novel Wheat NBR1-like Domain Gene Negatively Regulates Drought Stress Tolerance in Transgenic <i>Arabidopsis</i>

  • Liuping Chen,
  • Qian Lv,
  • Weibing Yang,
  • Hui Yang,
  • Qiaoyan Chen,
  • Bingxin Wang,
  • Yanhong Lei,
  • Yanzhou Xie

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094519
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 9
p. 4519

Abstract

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Drought stress is an important factor that severely affects crop yield and quality. Autophagy has a crucial role in the responses to abiotic stresses. In this study, we explore TaNBR1 in response to drought stress. Expression of the TaNBR1 gene was strongly induced by NaCl, PEG, and abscisic acid treatments. The TaNBR1 protein is localized in the Golgi apparatus and autophagosome. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing TaNBR1 exhibited reduced drought tolerance. When subjected to drought stress, compared to the wild-type (WT) lines, the transgenic overexpressing TaNBR1 plants had a lower seed germination rate, relative water content, proline content, and reduced accumulation of antioxidant enzymes, i.e., superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase, as well as higher chlorophyll losses, malondialdehyde contents, and water loss. The transgenic plants overexpressing TaNBR1 produced much shorter roots in response to mannitol stress, in comparison to the WT plants, and they exhibited greater sensitivity to abscisic acid treatment. The expression levels of the genes related to stress in the transgenic plants were affected in response to drought stress. Our results indicate that TaNBR1 negatively regulates drought stress responses by affecting the expression of stress-related genes in Arabidopsis.

Keywords