ijms-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Genetic and Molecular Mechanisms of Resistance or Adaptation to Abiotic Stress in Plants

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 2157

Special Issue Editor

Department of Plant Genetics and Breeding, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: statistical genetics and genomics; molecular mechanism of maize resistance to abiotic stress; maize breeding
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Worldwide abiotic stresses including drought, submergence, salinity, high temperature, chilling, low phosphorus, high metal toxicity, etc., lead to significant losses every year in agriculture. Fortunately, there are abundant germplasm or genetic resources that can adapt or even show resistance to each kind of abiotic stress. The knowledge of genetic and molecular mechanisms of resistance or adaptation to abiotic stress in plants could benefit breeding new varieties with higher resistance or better adaptation than released ones. Therefore, all the studies relevant to genetic and molecular mechanisms of resistance or adaptation to the common abiotic stresses, or the related molecular application methods, strategies, etc., are welcome in this Special Issue.

Dr. Wenxin Liu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 22881 KiB  
Article
The Late Embryogenesis Abundant Proteins in Soybean: Identification, Expression Analysis, and the Roles of GmLEA4_19 in Drought Stress
by Binhui Guo, Jianhua Zhang, Chunhong Yang, Lu Dong, Heng Ye, Babu Valliyodan, Henry T. Nguyen and Li Song
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(19), 14834; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241914834 - 02 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 920
Abstract
Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins play important roles in regulating plant growth and responses to various abiotic stresses. In this research, a genome-wide survey was conducted to recognize the LEA genes in Glycine max. A total of 74 GmLEA was identified and [...] Read more.
Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins play important roles in regulating plant growth and responses to various abiotic stresses. In this research, a genome-wide survey was conducted to recognize the LEA genes in Glycine max. A total of 74 GmLEA was identified and classified into nine subfamilies based on their conserved domains and the phylogenetic analysis. Subcellular localization, the duplication of genes, gene structure, the conserved motif, and the prediction of cis-regulatory elements and tissue expression pattern were then conducted to characterize GmLEAs. The expression profile analysis indicated that the expression of several GmLEAs was a response to drought and salt stress. The co-expression-based gene network analysis suggested that soybean LEA proteins may exert regulatory effects through the metabolic pathways. We further explored GnLEA4_19 function in Arabidopsis and the results suggests that overexpressed GmLEA4_19 in Arabidopsis increased plant height under mild or serious drought stress. Moreover, the overexpressed GmLEA4_19 soybean also showed a drought tolerance phenotype. These results indicated that GmLEA4_19 plays an important role in the tolerance to drought and will contribute to the development of the soybean transgenic with enhanced drought tolerance and better yield. Taken together, this study provided insight for better understanding the biological roles of LEA genes in soybean. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

23 pages, 13150 KiB  
Article
Functional Study of Amorpha fruticosa WRKY20 Gene in Response to Drought Stress
by Danni Li, Baoxiang Gu, Chunxi Huang, Jiayi Shen, Xin Wang, Jianan Guo, Ruiqiang Yu, Sirui Mou and Qingjie Guan
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(15), 12231; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241512231 - 31 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 790
Abstract
The WRKY gene family in plants regulates the plant’s response to drought through regulatory networks and hormone signaling. AfWRKY20 (MT859405) was cloned from Amorpha fruticosa (A. fruticosa) seedlings using RT-PCR. The binding properties of the AfWRKY20 protein and the W-box (a [...] Read more.
The WRKY gene family in plants regulates the plant’s response to drought through regulatory networks and hormone signaling. AfWRKY20 (MT859405) was cloned from Amorpha fruticosa (A. fruticosa) seedlings using RT-PCR. The binding properties of the AfWRKY20 protein and the W-box (a DNA cis-acting element) were verified both in vivo and in vitro using EMSA and Dual-Luciferase activity assays. RT-qPCR detected that the total expression level of AfWRKY20 in leaves and roots was 22 times higher in the 30% PEG6000 simulated drought treatment compared to the untreated group. Under the simulated drought stress treatments of sorbitol and abscisic acid (ABA), the transgenic tobacco with the AfWRKY20 gene showed enhanced drought resistance at the germination stage, with significantly increased germination rate, green leaf rate, fresh weight, and root length compared to the wild-type (WT) tobacco. In addition, the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, chlorophyll content, and Fv/Fm ratio of AfWRKY20 transgenic tobacco were significantly higher than those of the WT tobacco under natural drought stress, while the malondialdehyde (MDA) content and 3,3′-diaminobenzidine (DAB) and nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) staining levels were lower. The expression levels of oxidation kinase genes (NbSOD, NbPOD, and NbCAT) in transgenic tobacco under drought stress were significantly higher than those in WT tobacco. This enhancement in gene expression improved the ability of transgenic tobacco to detoxify reactive oxygen species (ROS). The survival rate of transgenic tobacco after natural drought rehydration was four times higher than that of WT tobacco. In summary, this study revealed the regulatory mechanism of AfWRKY20 in response to drought stress-induced ABA signaling, particularly in relation to ROS. This finding provides a theoretical basis for understanding the pathways of WRKY20 involved in drought stress, and offers genetic resources for molecular plant breeding aimed at enhancing drought resistance. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop