A tubby-like protein, MdTLP7 enhances drought and salt stresses tolerance of Malus domestica

Abstract

Background

Drought and salt stresses as common abiotic stresses have a significant impact on the yield and quality of Malus domestica (apple). The tubby-like proteins (TLPs), as a family of transcription factors, play an important role in plant response to abiotic stresses, but the regulatory mechanisms involved remain unclear.

Results

Here, we investigated how apple TLP7 (MdTLP7) and its interacting genes regulate apple response to drought and salt stresses. The results shows that overexpression of MdTLP7 significantly increased the drought and salt tolerance of apple through regulating gene transcription. Yeast two-hybrid screening, together with DNA affinity purification sequencing (DAP-seq), revealed that MdTLP7 interacted with MdNAC72L to regulate the expression of MdHsp70-8 and MdAGP, and that the overexpression of these two genes significantly enhanced the drought and salt stresses tolerance of apple.

Conclusion

The apple protein MdTLP7 could interact with MdNAC72L and promoted the expression of MdHsp70-8 and MdAGP, thus improved drought and salt tolerance of apple calli. These results provide insights into the molecular mechanism of MdTLP7 increasing the drought and salt stresses tolerance of apple as well as a theoretical basis for the expansion of apple cultivation and related research.