The Wheat Gene TaVQ14 Confers Salt and Drought Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana Plants

• Published in: Frontiers in plant science 2022-05, Vol.13, p.870586-870586
• Main Authors: Cheng, Xinran, Yao, Hui, Cheng, Zuming, Tian, Bingbing, Gao, Chang, Gao, Wei, Yan, Shengnan, Cao, Jiajia, Pan, Xu, Lu, Jie, Ma, Chuanxi, Chang, Cheng, Zhang, Haiping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: drought; expression analysis; Plant Science; salt; subcellular localization; TaVQ14; wheat
• ISSN: 1664-462X; 1664-462X
• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.870586

Wheat is one of the most widely cultivated food crops worldwide, and the safe production of wheat is essential to ensure food security. Soil salinization and drought have severely affected the yield and quality of wheat. Valine-glutamine genes play important roles in abiotic stress response. This study assessed the effect of the gene on drought and salt stresses resistance. Sequence analysis showed that TaVQ14 encoded a basic unstable hydrophobic protein with 262 amino acids. Subcellular localization showed that TaVQ14 was localized in the nucleus. was upregulated in wheat seeds under drought and salt stress. Under NaCl and mannitol treatments, the percentage of seed germination was higher in Arabidopsis lines overexpressing than in wild-type lines, whereas the germination rate was significantly lower in plants with a mutation in the gene (a homolog) than in WT controls, suggesting that increases resistance to salt and drought stress in Arabidopsis seeds. Moreover, under salt and drought stress, Arabidopsis lines overexpressing had higher catalase, superoxide dismutase, and proline levels and lower malondialdehyde concentrations than WT controls, suggesting that improves salt and drought resistance in Arabidopsis by scavenging reactive oxygen species. Expression analysis showed that several genes responsive to salt and drought stress were upregulated in Arabidopsis plants overexpressing . Particularly, salt treatment increased the expression of in these plants. Moreover, salt treatment increased Ca concentrations in plants overexpressing , suggesting that enhances salt resistance in Arabidopsis seeds through calcium signaling. In summary, this study demonstrated that the heterologous expression of increases the resistance of Arabidopsis seeds to salt and drought stress.