Heat, drought, and combined stress effect on transgenic potato plants overexpressing the StERF94 transcription factor

• Published in: Journal of plant research 2023-07, Vol.136 (4), p.549-562
• Main Authors: Charfeddine, Mariam, Chiab, Nour, Charfeddine, Safa, Ferjani, Aziza, Gargouri-Bouzid, Radhia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antioxidants; Antioxidants - metabolism; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Chlorophyll; Climate change; Coding; Combined stress; Drought; Droughts; Economic importance; Enzymes; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Heat; High temperature; Hot Temperature; Leaves; Life Sciences; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Ecology; Plant Physiology; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plant Sciences; Plants (botany); Plants, Genetically Modified - metabolism; Potatoes; Regular Paper – Genetics/Developmental Biology; Salinity tolerance; Solanum tuberosum - genetics; Solanum tuberosum - metabolism; Stress, Physiological - genetics; Transcription factors; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Transgenic plants; Vegetables
• ISSN: 0918-9440; 1618-0860
• DOI: 10.1007/s10265-023-01454-8

Despite their economic importance worldwide, potato plants are sensitive to various abiotic constraints, such as drought and high temperatures, which cause significant losses in yields and tuber quality. Moreover, because of the climate change phenomenon, plants are frequently subjected to combined stresses, mainly high temperatures and drought. In this context, breeding for tolerant varieties should consider not only plant response to drought or high temperature but also to combined stresses. In the current study, we studied transgenic potato plants overexpressing an ethylene response transcription factor (TF; StERF94 ) involved in abiotic stress response signaling pathways. Our previous results showed that these transgenic plants display tolerance to salt stress more than wildtype (WT). In this work, we aimed to investigate the effects of drought, heat, and combined stresses on transgenic potato plants overexpressing StERF 94 TF under in vitro culture conditions. The obtained results revealed that StERF94 overexpression improved the tolerance of the transgenic plants to drought, heat, and combined stresses through better control of the leaf water and chlorophyll contents, activation of antioxidant enzymes, and an accumulation of proline, especially in the leaves. Indeed, the expression level of antioxidant enzyme-encoding genes (CuZnSOD, FeSOD, CAT1, and CAT2) was significantly induced by the different stress conditions in the transgenic potato plants compared with the WT plants. This study further confirms that StERF 94 TF may be implicated in regulating the expression of target genes encoding antioxidant enzymes.