OsbZIP72 Is Involved in Transcriptional Gene-Regulation Pathway of Abscisic Acid Signal Transduction by Activating Rice High-Affinity Potassium Transporter OsHKT1;1

We created CRISPR-Cas9 knock-out and overexpressing OsbZIP72 transgenic rice plants to gain a better understanding of the role and molecular mechanism of OsbZIP72 gene in stress tolerance,which has remained largely elusive.OsbZIP72 was expressed and integrated into rice transgenic plant genomes,and the OsbZIP72 transcript in overexpression lines was elicited by salinity,abscisic acid(ABA)and drought stresses.OsbZIP72 overexpressing plants showed higher tolerance to drought and salinity stresses,while knock-out transgenic lines showed higher sensitivity to these stresses.The differentially expressed genes(DEGs)from RNA-sequencing data encompassed several abiotic stress genes,and the functional classification of these DEGs demonstrated the robust transcriptome diversity in OsbZIP72.Yeast one-hybrid,along with luciferase assay,indicated that OsbZIP72 acted as a transcriptional initiator.Remarkably,electrophoresis mobility assay revealed that OsbZIP72 bound directly to the ABAresponsive element in the OsHKT1;1 promoter region and activated its transcription.Overall,our findings revealed that OsbZIP72 can act as a transcriptional modulator with the ability to induce the expression of OsHKT1;1 in response to environmental stress through an ABA-dependent regulatory pathway,indicating that OsbZIP72 can play a crucial role in the ABA-mediated salt and drought tolerance pathway in rice.

Potassium transporter OsHAK9 regulates seed germination under salt stress by preventing gibberellin degradation through mediating OsGA2ox7 in rice

Soil salinity has a major impact on rice seed germination,severely limiting rice production.Herein,a rice germination defective mutant under salt stress(gdss)was identified by using chemical mutagenesis.The GDSS gene was detected via MutMap and shown to encode potassium transporter OsHAK9.Phenotypic analysis of complementation and mutant lines demonstrated that OsHAK9 was an essential regulator responsible for seed germination under salt stress.OsHAK9 is highly expressed in germinating seed embryos.Ion contents and non-invasive micro-test technology results showed that OsHAK9 restricted K^(+)efflux in salt-exposed germinating seeds for the balance of K^(+)/Na^(+).Disruption of OsHAK9 significantly reduced gibberellin 4(GA4)levels,and the germination defective phenotype of oshak9a was partly rescued by exogenous GA_(3)treatment under salt stress.RNA sequencing(RNA-seq)and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis demonstrated that the disruption of OsHAK9 improved the GA-deactivated gene OsGA2ox7 expression in germinating seeds under salt stress,and the expression of OsGA2ox7 was significantly inhibited by salt stress.Null mutants of OsGA2ox7 created using clustered,regularly interspaced,short palindromic repeat(CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated nuclease 9 approach displayed a dramatically increased seed germination ability under salt stress.Overall,our results highlight that OsHAK9 regulates seed germination performance under salt stress involving preventing GA degradation by mediating OsGA2ox7,which provides a novel clue about the relationship between GA and OsHAKs in rice.

Molecular evolution and functional divergence of HAK potassium transporter gene family in rice(Oryza sativa L.)

The high-affinity K＋ （HAK） transporter gene family is the largest family in plant that functions as potassium transporter and is important for various aspects of plant life. In the present study, we identified 27 members of this family in rice genome. The phylogenetic tree divided the land plant HAK transporter proteins into 6 distinct groups. Although the main characteristic of this family was established before the origin of seed plants, they also showed some differences between the members of non-seed and seed plants. The HAK genes in rice were found to have expanded in lineage-specific manner after the split of monocots and dicots, and both segmental duplication events and tandem duplication events contributed to the expansion of this family. Functional divergence analysis for this family provided statistical evidence for shifted evolutionary rate after gene duplication. Further analysis indicated that both point mutant with positive selection and gene conversion events contributed to the evolution of this family in rice.

SbHKT1;4, a member of the high‐affinity potassium transporter gene family from Sorghum bicolor, functions to maintain optimal Na^+/K^+ balance under Na^+ stress

In halophytic plants, the high-affinity potassium transporter HKT gene family can selectively uptake K＋ in the presence of toxic concentrations of Na＋. This has so far not been well examined in glycophytic crops. Here, we report the characterization of SbHKTI;4, a member of the HKT gene family from Sorghum bicolor. Upon Na＋ stress, SbHKT1;4 expression was more strongly upregulated in salt-tolerant sorghum accession, correlating with a better balanced Na＋/ K＋ ratio and enhanced plant growth. Heterogeneous expression analyses in mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Arabidopsis thaliana indicated that overexpressing SbHKT1;4 resulted in hypersensitivity to Na＋ stress, and such hypersensitivity could be alleviated with the supply of elevated levels of K＋, implicating that SbHKT1;4 may mediate K＋ uptake in the presence of excessive Na＋. Further electrophysiological evidence demonstrated that SbHKT1;4 could transport Na＋ and K＋ when expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. The relevance of the finding that SbHKTI;4 functions to maintain optimal Na＋/K＋ balance under Na＋ stress to the breeding of salt-tolerant glycophytic crops is discussed.

The Potassium Transporter OsHAK5 Alters Rice Architecture via ATP-Dependent Transmembrane Auxin Fluxes

Plant HAK/KUP/KT family members function as plasma membrane(PM)H^(+)/K^(+)symporters and may modulate chemiosmotically-driven polar auxin transport(PAT).Here,we show that inactivation of OsHAK5,a rice K^(+)transporter gene,decreased rootward and shootward PAT,tiller number,and the length of both lateral roots and root hairs,while OsHAK5 overexpression increased PAT,tiller number,and root hair length,irrespective of the K^(+)supply.Inhibitors of ATP-binding-cassette type-B transporters,NPA and BUM,abolished the OsHAK5-overexpression effect on PAT.The mechanistic basis of these changes included the OsHAK5-mediated decrease of transmembrane potential(depolarization),increase of extracellular pH,and increase of PM-ATPase activity.These findings highlight the dual roles of OsHAK5 in altering cellular chemiosmotic gradients(generated continuously by PM H^(+)-ATPase)and regulating ATP-dependent auxin transport.Both functions may underlie the prominent effect of OsHAK5 on rice architecture,which may be exploited in the future to increase crop yield via genetic manipulations.

Potassium sulphate induces resistance of rice against the rootknot nematode Meloidogyne graminicola

Potassium(K),an important nutrient element,can improve the stress resistance/tolerance of crops.The application of K in resisting plant-parasitic nematodes shows that the K treatment can reduce the occurrence of nematode diseases and increase crop yield.However,data on K_(2)SO_(4)induced rice resistance against the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne graminicola are still lacking.In this work,K_(2)SO_(4)treatment reduced galls and nematodes in rice plants and delayed the development of nematodes.Rather than affecting the attractiveness of roots to nematodes and the morphological phenotype of giant cells at feeding sites,such an effect is achieved by rapidly priming hydrogen peroxide(H_(2)O_(2))accumulation and increasing callose deposition.Meanwhile,galls and nematodes in rice roots were more in the potassium channel OsAKT11 and transporter OsHAK5 gene-deficient plants than in wild-type,while the K_(2)SO_(4)-induced resistance showed weaker in the defective plants.In addition,during the process of nematode infection,the expression of jasmonic acid(JA)/ethylene(ET)/brassinolide(BR)signaling pathway-related genes and pathogenesis-related(PR)genes OsPR1 a/OsPR1 b was up-regulated in rice after K_(2)SO_(4)treatment.In conclusion,K_(2)SO_(4)induced rice resistance against M.graminicola.The mechanism of inducing resistance was to prime the basal defense and required the participation of the K^(+)channel and transporter in rice.These laid a foundation for further study on the mechanism of rice defense against nematodes and the rational use of potassium fertilizer on improving rice resistance against nematodes in the field.