Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i>
To ensure global food security under the changing climate, there is a strong need for developing ‘climate resilient crops’ that can thrive and produce better yields under extreme environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, and high temperature. To enhance plant productivity under the adverse...
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MDPI AG
2021-05-01
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| author | Hesham M. Abdullah Jessica Rodriguez Jeffrey M. Salacup Isla S. Castañeda Danny J. Schnell Ashwani Pareek Om Parkash Dhankher |
| author_facet | Hesham M. Abdullah Jessica Rodriguez Jeffrey M. Salacup Isla S. Castañeda Danny J. Schnell Ashwani Pareek Om Parkash Dhankher |
| author_sort | Hesham M. Abdullah |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | To ensure global food security under the changing climate, there is a strong need for developing ‘climate resilient crops’ that can thrive and produce better yields under extreme environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, and high temperature. To enhance plant productivity under the adverse conditions, we constitutively overexpressed a bifunctional <i>wax synthase/acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase</i> (<i>WSD1</i>) gene, which plays a critical role in wax ester synthesis in Arabidopsis stem and leaf tissues. The qRT-PCR analysis showed a strong upregulation of <i>WSD1</i> transcripts by mannitol, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments, particularly in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> shoots. Gas chromatography and electron microscopy analyses of Arabidopsis seedlings overexpressing WSD1 showed higher deposition of epicuticular wax crystals and increased leaf and stem wax loading in WSD1 transgenics compared to wildtype (WT) plants. WSD1 transgenics exhibited enhanced tolerance to ABA, mannitol, drought and salinity, which suggested new physiological roles for WSD1 in stress response aside from its wax synthase activity. Transgenic plants were able to recover from drought and salinity better than the WT plants. Furthermore, transgenics showed reduced cuticular transpirational rates and cuticle permeability, as well as less chlorophyll leaching than the WT. The knowledge from Arabidopsis was translated to the oilseed crop <i>Camelina sativa</i> (L.) Crantz. Similar to Arabidopsis, transgenic Camelina lines overexpressing WSD1 also showed enhanced tolerance to drought stress. Our results clearly show that the manipulation of cuticular waxes will be advantageous for enhancing plant productivity under a changing climate. |
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| spelling | doaj.art-23d89a76ae174804a6afd5c27d4e0dcb2023-11-21T19:37:39ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1661-65961422-00672021-05-012210517310.3390/ijms22105173Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i>Hesham M. Abdullah0Jessica Rodriguez1Jeffrey M. Salacup2Isla S. Castañeda3Danny J. Schnell4Ashwani Pareek5Om Parkash Dhankher6Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USAStockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USADepartment of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USADepartment of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USADepartment of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USAStress Physiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 100067, IndiaStockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USATo ensure global food security under the changing climate, there is a strong need for developing ‘climate resilient crops’ that can thrive and produce better yields under extreme environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, and high temperature. To enhance plant productivity under the adverse conditions, we constitutively overexpressed a bifunctional <i>wax synthase/acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase</i> (<i>WSD1</i>) gene, which plays a critical role in wax ester synthesis in Arabidopsis stem and leaf tissues. The qRT-PCR analysis showed a strong upregulation of <i>WSD1</i> transcripts by mannitol, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments, particularly in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> shoots. Gas chromatography and electron microscopy analyses of Arabidopsis seedlings overexpressing WSD1 showed higher deposition of epicuticular wax crystals and increased leaf and stem wax loading in WSD1 transgenics compared to wildtype (WT) plants. WSD1 transgenics exhibited enhanced tolerance to ABA, mannitol, drought and salinity, which suggested new physiological roles for WSD1 in stress response aside from its wax synthase activity. Transgenic plants were able to recover from drought and salinity better than the WT plants. Furthermore, transgenics showed reduced cuticular transpirational rates and cuticle permeability, as well as less chlorophyll leaching than the WT. The knowledge from Arabidopsis was translated to the oilseed crop <i>Camelina sativa</i> (L.) Crantz. Similar to Arabidopsis, transgenic Camelina lines overexpressing WSD1 also showed enhanced tolerance to drought stress. Our results clearly show that the manipulation of cuticular waxes will be advantageous for enhancing plant productivity under a changing climate.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/10/5173cuticular waxesdroughtsalinitystress tolerance/adaptationgene expressionwax loading |
| spellingShingle | Hesham M. Abdullah Jessica Rodriguez Jeffrey M. Salacup Isla S. Castañeda Danny J. Schnell Ashwani Pareek Om Parkash Dhankher Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i> International Journal of Molecular Sciences cuticular waxes drought salinity stress tolerance/adaptation gene expression wax loading |
| title | Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i> |
| title_full | Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i> |
| title_fullStr | Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i> |
| title_full_unstemmed | Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i> |
| title_short | Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> and <i>Camelina sativa</i> |
| title_sort | increased cuticle waxes by overexpression of wsd1 improves osmotic stress tolerance in i arabidopsis thaliana i and i camelina sativa i |
| topic | cuticular waxes drought salinity stress tolerance/adaptation gene expression wax loading |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/10/5173 |
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