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© 2015 Public Library of Science. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited: Cui L-G, Shan J-X, Shi M, Gao J-P, Lin H-X (2015) DCA1 Acts as a Transcriptional Co-activator of DST and Contributes to Drought and Salt Tolerance in Rice. PLoS Genet 11(10): e1005617. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005617

Abstract

Natural disasters, including drought and salt stress, seriously threaten food security. In previous work we cloned a key zinc finger transcription factor gene, Drought and Salt Tolerance (DST), a negative regulator of drought and salt tolerance that controls stomatal aperture in rice. However, the exact mechanism by which DST regulates the expression of target genes remains unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that DST Co-activator 1 (DCA1), a previously unknown CHY zinc finger protein, acts as an interacting co-activator of DST. DST was found to physically interact with itself and to form a heterologous tetramer with DCA1. This transcriptional complex appears to regulate the expression of peroxidase 24 precursor (Prx 24), a gene encoding an H2O2 scavenger that is more highly expressed in guard cells. Downregulation of DCA1 significantly enhanced drought and salt tolerance in rice, and overexpression of DCA1 increased sensitivity to stress treatment. These phenotypes were mainly influenced by DCA1 and negatively regulated stomatal closure through the direct modulation of genes associated with H2O2 homeostasis. Our findings establish a framework for plant drought and salt stress tolerance through the DCA1-DST-Prx24 pathway. Moreover, due to the evolutionary and functional conservation of DCA1 and DST in plants, engineering of this pathway has the potential to improve tolerance to abiotic stress in other important crop species.

Details

Title
DCA1 Acts as a Transcriptional Co-activator of DST and Contributes to Drought and Salt Tolerance in Rice
Author
Cui, Long-Gang; Shan, Jun-Xiang; Shi, Min; Gao, Ji-Ping; Lin, Hong-Xuan
Section
Research Article
Publication year
2015
Publication date
Oct 2015
Publisher
Public Library of Science
ISSN
15537390
e-ISSN
15537404
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1733642306
Copyright
© 2015 Public Library of Science. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited: Cui L-G, Shan J-X, Shi M, Gao J-P, Lin H-X (2015) DCA1 Acts as a Transcriptional Co-activator of DST and Contributes to Drought and Salt Tolerance in Rice. PLoS Genet 11(10): e1005617. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005617