Genome-wide analysis of HSF family and overexpression of PsnHSF21 confers salt tolerance in Populus simonii × P. nigra

Qing Guo; Ran Wei; Min Xu; Wenjing Yao; Jiahui Jiang; Xujun Ma; Guanzheng Qu; Tingbo Jiang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1160102

Genome-wide analysis of HSF family and overexpression of PsnHSF21 confers salt tolerance in Populus simonii × P. nigra

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Apr 26:14:1160102. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1160102. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qing Guo^{1

2}, Ran Wei¹, Min Xu¹, Wenjing Yao^{1

3}, Jiahui Jiang¹, Xujun Ma¹, Guanzheng Qu¹, Tingbo Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China.
² School of Architecture and Civil Engineer, Heilongjiang University of Science and Technology, Harbin, China.
³ Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China/Bamboo Research Institute, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Heat shock transcription factor (HSF) is an important TF that performs a dominant role in plant growth, development, and stress response network. In this study, we identified a total of 30 HSF members from poplar, which are unevenly distributed on 17 chromosomes. The poplar HSF family can be divided into three subfamilies, and the members of the same subfamily share relatively conserved domains and motifs. HSF family members are acidic and hydrophilic proteins that are located in the nucleus and mainly carry out gene expansion through segmental replication. In addition, they have rich collinearity across plant species. Based on RNA-Seq analysis, we explored the expression pattern of PtHSFs under salt stress. Subsequently, we cloned the significantly upregulated PtHSF21 gene and transformed it into Populus simonii × P. nigra. Under salt stress, the transgenic poplar overexpressing PtHSF21 had a better growth state and higher reactive oxygen scavenging ability. A yeast one-hybrid experiment indicated PtHSF21 could improve salt tolerance by specifically binding to the anti-stress cis-acting element HSE. This study comprehensively profiled the fundamental information of poplar HSF family members and their responses to salt stress and specifically verified the biological function of PtHSF21, which provides clues for understanding the molecular mechanism of poplar HSF members in response to salt stress.

Keywords: Populus simonii × P. nigra; PsnHSF21; heat shock transcription factor; salt stress; transcriptional regulation.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFD2200203), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2572018CL03), and the Innovation Project of State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding (Northeast Forestry University) (No. 2015A02).