Functional characterization of the Arabidopsis SERRATE under salt stress

Minghui Mou; Qijuan Wang; Yanli Chen; Diqiu Yu; Ligang Chen

doi:10.1016/j.pld.2020.06.010

Functional characterization of the Arabidopsis SERRATE under salt stress

Plant Divers. 2020 Jul 14;43(1):71-77. doi: 10.1016/j.pld.2020.06.010. eCollection 2021 Feb.

Authors

Minghui Mou^{1

2}, Qijuan Wang^{1

2}, Yanli Chen^{1

2}, Diqiu Yu¹, Ligang Chen^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Plant Resources and Sustainable Use, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China.
² College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ Center of Economic Botany, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China.

Abstract

SERRATE (SE) plays critical roles in RNA metabolism and plant growth regulation. However, its function in stress-response processes remains largely unknown. Here, we examined the regulatory role of SE using the se-1 mutant and its complementation line under saline conditions. The expression of SE was repressed by salt treatment at both mRNA and protein levels. After treatment with different NaCl concentrations, the se-1 mutants showed increased sensitivity to salinity. This heightened sensitivity was evidenced by decreased germination, reduced root growth, more serious chlorosis, and increased conductivity of the mutants compared with the wild type. Further analysis revealed that SE regulates the pre-mRNA splicing of several well-characterized marker genes associated with salt stress tolerance. Our data thus imply that SE may function as a key component in plant response to salt stress by modulating the splicing of salt stress-associated genes.

Keywords: Pre-mRNA alternative splicing; SERRATE; Salt stress.