The Grapevine Calmodulin-Like Protein Gene CML21 Is Regulated by Alternative Splicing and Involved in Abiotic Stress Response

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences 2020-10, Vol.21 (21), p.7939
• Main Authors: Aleynova, Olga A, Kiselev, Konstantin V, Ogneva, Zlata V, Dubrovina, Alexandra S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Alternative Splicing; Amino acids; Arabidopsis; calcium sensor protein; Calcium-binding protein; Callus; Calmodulin; Calmodulin - chemistry; Calmodulin - genetics; Calmodulin - metabolism; Cloning; Cold; cold stress; Cold Temperature; Desiccation; Droughts; Freezing; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Genomes; Hot Temperature; Kinases; Low temperature; Mannitol; Mannitol - adverse effects; mRNA splice variants; Plant Proteins - chemistry; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Polymerase chain reaction; Protein Domains; Proteins; Retention; Salinity; Sensors; Site selection; Splicing; Stress, Physiological; Transcription; Transgenic plants; transgenic plants and cell cultures; Vitis - genetics; Vitis - growth & development; Vitis - metabolism; Vitis amurensis
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms21217939

Calmodulin-like proteins (CMLs) represent a large family of plant calcium sensor proteins involved in the regulation of plant responses to environmental cues and developmental processes. In the present work, we identified four alternatively spliced mRNA forms of the grapevine gene that encoded proteins with distinct N-terminal regions. We studied the transcript abundance of , , and in wild-growing grapevine Rupr. in response to desiccation, heat, cold, high salinity, and high mannitol stress using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. The levels of all four splice variants of were highly induced in response to cold stress. In addition, and forms were highly modulated by all other abiotic stress treatments. Constitutive expression of and improved biomass accumulation of callus cell cultures under prolonged low temperature stress. Heterologous expression of the grapevine and splice variants in improved survival rates of the transgenic plants after freezing. The overexpression enhanced activation of the cold stress-responsive marker genes and , while overexpression- , , , and genes after freezing stress in the transgenic . The results indicate that the grapevine gene acts as a positive regulator in the plant response to cold stress. The detected variety of transcripts and their distinct transcriptional responses suggested that this expansion of mRNA variants could contribute to the diversity of grapevine adaptive reactions.