A straight-forward gene mining strategy to identify TaCIPK19 as a new regulator of drought tolerance in wheat

Ya'nan Wu; Qingchen Luo; Zehao Wu; Jingbo Yu; Qian Zhang; Fu Shi; Yuge Zou; Li Li; Hongyan Zhao; Yuesheng Wang; Mingjie Chen; Junli Chang; Guangyuan He; Guangxiao Yang; Yin Li

doi:10.1016/j.plaphy.2023.108034

A straight-forward gene mining strategy to identify TaCIPK19 as a new regulator of drought tolerance in wheat

Plant Physiol Biochem. 2023 Oct:203:108034. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2023.108034. Epub 2023 Sep 18.

Authors

Ya'nan Wu¹, Qingchen Luo², Zehao Wu¹, Jingbo Yu¹, Qian Zhang¹, Fu Shi¹, Yuge Zou¹, Li Li¹, Hongyan Zhao¹, Yuesheng Wang¹, Mingjie Chen¹, Junli Chang¹, Guangyuan He³, Guangxiao Yang⁴, Yin Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ The Genetic Engineering International Cooperation Base of Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, The Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of Chinese Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
² Hubei Key Laboratory of Purification and Application of Plant Anti-Cancer Active Ingredients, Department of Chemistry and Life Science, Hubei University of Education, Wuhan, 430205, China.
³ The Genetic Engineering International Cooperation Base of Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, The Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of Chinese Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: hegy@hust.edu.cn.
⁴ The Genetic Engineering International Cooperation Base of Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, The Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of Chinese Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: ygx@hust.edu.cn.
⁵ The Genetic Engineering International Cooperation Base of Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, The Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of Chinese Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: yinli2021@hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 37738865
DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2023.108034

Abstract

Drought stress is one of the most impactful abiotic stresses to global wheat production. Therefore, identifying key regulators such as the calcineurin B-like protein interacting protein kinase (CIPK) in the signaling cascades known to coordinate developmental cues and environmental stimuli represents a useful approach to improve drought tolerance. However, functional studies have been very limited partly due to the difficulties in prioritizing candidate genes from the large TaCIPK family. To address this issue, we demonstrate a straight-forward strategy by analyzing gene expression patterns in response to phytohormones or stresses and identified TaCIPK19 as a new regulator to improve drought tolerance. The effects of TaCIPK19 on drought tolerance were evaluated in both tobacco and wheat through transgenic approach. Ectopic expression of TaCIPK19 in tobacco greatly improves drought tolerance with enhanced ABA biosynthesis/signaling and ROS scavenging capacity. TaCIPK19 overexpression in wheat also confers the drought tolerance at both seedling and mature stages with enhanced ROS scavenging capacity. Additionally, potential CBL partners interacting with TaCIPK19 were investigated. Collectively, our finding exemplifies a straight-forward approach to facilitate reverse genetics related to abiotic stress improvement and demonstrates TaCIPK19 as a new candidate gene to improve ROS scavenging capacity and drought tolerance, which is useful for genetic improvement and breeding application in wheat.

Keywords: Abiotic stress; CBL-CIPK interaction; CIPK; Drought tolerance; Gene functional characterization; ROS; Transgenic wheat.