Overexpression of potato ORANGE (StOR) and StOR mutant in Arabidopsis confers increased carotenoid accumulation and tolerance to abiotic stress

Le Kang; Chunli Zhang; Junke Liu; Muying Ye; Li Zhang; Fengfeng Chen; Xinyue Lin; Dongjing Yang; Liping Ren; Yunxiang Li; Ho Soo Kim; Sang-Soo Kwak; Hongbing Li; Xiping Deng; Peng Zhang; Qingbo Ke

doi:10.1016/j.plaphy.2023.107809

Overexpression of potato ORANGE (StOR) and StOR mutant in Arabidopsis confers increased carotenoid accumulation and tolerance to abiotic stress

Plant Physiol Biochem. 2023 Aug:201:107809. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2023.107809. Epub 2023 Jun 5.

Authors

Le Kang¹, Chunli Zhang², Junke Liu², Muying Ye², Li Zhang³, Fengfeng Chen³, Xinyue Lin², Dongjing Yang⁴, Liping Ren³, Yunxiang Li³, Ho Soo Kim⁵, Sang-Soo Kwak⁵, Hongbing Li², Xiping Deng², Peng Zhang⁶, Qingbo Ke⁷

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637002, China; National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China.
² Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China.
³ College of Environmental Science and Engineering, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637002, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Sweetpotato, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Xuzhou Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Jiangsu Xuhuai District, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, 221131, China.
⁵ Plant Systems Engineering Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon, 34141, South Korea.
⁶ National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China. Electronic address: zhangpeng@sibs.ac.cn.
⁷ Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China. Electronic address: qbke@nwafu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37315350
DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2023.107809

Abstract

ORANGE (OR) plays essential roles in regulating carotenoid homeostasis and enhancing the ability of plants to adapt to environmental stress. However, OR proteins have been functionally characterized in only a few plant species, and little is known about the role of potato OR (StOR). In this study, we characterized the StOR gene in potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Atlantic). StOR is predominantly localized to the chloroplast, and its transcripts are tissue-specifically expressed and significantly induced in response to abiotic stress. Compared with wild type, overexpression of StOR increased β-carotene levels up to 4.8-fold, whereas overexpression of StOR^His with a conserved arginine to histidine substitution promoted β-carotene accumulation up to 17.6-fold in Arabidopsis thaliana calli. Neither StOR nor StOR^His overexpression dramatically affected the transcript levels of carotenoid biosynthetic genes. Furthermore, overexpression of either StOR or StOR^His increased abiotic stress tolerance in Arabidopsis, which was associated with higher photosynthetic capacity and antioxidative activity. Taken together, these results indicate that StOR could be exploited as a potential new genetic tool for the improvement of crop nutritional quality and environmental stress tolerance.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; Carotenoid; ORANGE gene; ORANGE mutant; Potato.

MeSH terms

Arabidopsis* / genetics
Arabidopsis* / metabolism
Carotenoids / metabolism
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
Plant Proteins / genetics
Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
Plants, Genetically Modified / metabolism
Solanum tuberosum* / genetics
Solanum tuberosum* / metabolism
Stress, Physiological / genetics
beta Carotene

Substances

beta Carotene
Carotenoids
Plant Proteins