OsLUX Confers Rice Cold Tolerance as a Positive Regulatory Factor

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2023-04, Vol.24 (7), p.6727
• Main Authors: Huang, Peng, Ding, Zhengquan, Duan, Min, Xiong, Yi, Li, Xinxin, Yuan, Xi, Huang, Ji
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Binding; Biological clocks; Cell cycle; Circadian rhythm; Circadian rhythms; Cold; cold stress; Cold Temperature; Cold tolerance; Cold-Shock Response - genetics; Dehydration; DREB; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Leakage; Localization; Low temperature; Low temperature resistance; LUX ARRHYTHMO; Oryza - metabolism; Oryza sativa; Oxidative stress; Plant Breeding; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plants, Genetically Modified - metabolism; Proteins; Reactive oxygen species; Regulatory sequences; Rice; Scavenging; Seedlings; Stress, Physiological - genetics; Temperature tolerance; Transcription factors; Transcription Factors - metabolism; transcriptional regulation
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms24076727

During the early seedling stage, rice ( L.) must overcome low-temperature stress. While a few cold-tolerance genes have been characterized, further excavation of cold-resistance genes is still needed. In this study, we identified a cold-induced transcription factor-LUX ARRHYTHMO (LUX)-in rice. OsLUX was found to be specifically expressed in leaf blades and upregulated by both cold stress and circadian rhythm. The full-length OsLUX showed autoactivation activity, and the OsLUX protein localized throughout the entire onion cell. Overexpressing resulted in increased cold tolerance and reduced ion leakage under cold-stress conditions during the seedling stage. In contrast, the knockout of decreased seedling cold tolerance and showed higher ion leakage compared to the wild type. Furthermore, overexpressing upregulated the expression levels of oxidative stress-responsive genes, which improved reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging ability and enhanced tolerance to chilling stress. Promoter analysis showed that the promoter contains two dehydration-responsive element binding (DREB) motifs at positions -510/-505 (GTCGGa) and -162/-170 (cCACCGccc), which indicated that OsDREB1s and OsDREB2s probably regulate expression by binding to the motif to respond to cold stress. Thus, OsLUX may act as a downstream gene of the DREB pathway. These results demonstrate that OsLUX serves as a positive regulatory factor of cold stress and that overexpressing OsLUX could be used in rice breeding programs to enhance abiotic stress tolerance.