• 생명과학회지
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.376-387
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• 2018

식물이 접하는 다양한 환경 스트레스(고온, 저온, 냉해, 고염, 가뭄 등) 중에서 물부족(가뭄) 스트레스는 식물의 생장 및 생산성을 저해하는 가장 주요한 요인으로 보고되어 왔다. 그러므로, 물부족 스트레스에 대한 식물의 반응 기작을 명확히 이해하는 것은 물부족 스트레스 저항성이 증가된 유용 작물 개발에 적용될 수 있을 것으로 기대되며, 그 결과 작물 재배 가능 지역의 확대에 기여할 수 있을 것으로 생각된다. 식물의 물부족 스트레스 신호 과정은 크게 식물 호르몬인 앱시스산 의존적인 과정과 비의존적인 과정으로 분류되며, 각각 AREB/ABF, DREB2 전사 조절 인자가 주요한 전사 조절 인자로 참여하여 하위 단계 반응 유전자의 발현 조절에 참여한다. 이러한 AREB/ABF, DREB2 의존적인 regulon에 대한 연구를 통해 물부족 스트레스 신호 과정 중 전사 수준의 조절에 대한 규명이 활발히 이루어지고 있다. 해당 신호 과정에는 전사 수준의 조절뿐만 아니라 인산화, 유비퀴틴화와 같은 번역 후 변형 과정 및 염색질 변형에 의해 매개되는 후성유전학적 조절도 연관되어 있다. 본 총설에서는 현재까지 보고된 물부족 스트레스 신호 전달 과정을, 이와 관련되어 보고된 다양한 신호 전달 단백질들의 기능과 연계시켜 알아보고자 한다. 이러한 물부족 스트레스 신호 전달 과정에 대한 명확한 이해는 향후 유용 내건성 작물 개발을 위한 이론적 기반 구축에 도움이 될 수 있을 것이라 생각된다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제32권5호
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• pp.582-593
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• 2022

Among abiotic stresses in plants, drought and chilling stresses reduce the supply of moisture to plant tissues, inhibit photosynthesis, and severely reduce plant growth and yield. Thus, the application of water stress-tolerant agents can be a useful strategy to maintain plant growth under abiotic stresses. This study assessed the effect of exogenous bio-based 2,3-butanediol (BDO) application on drought and chilling response in tomato and turfgrass, and expression levels of several plant signaling pathway-related gene transcripts. Bio-based 2,3-BDOs were formulated to levo-2,3-BDO 0.9% soluble concentrate (levo 0.9% SL) and meso-2,3-BDO 9% SL (meso 9% SL). Under drought and chilling stress conditions, the application of levo 0.9% SL in creeping bentgrass and meso 9% SL in tomato plants significantly reduced the deleterious effects of abiotic stresses. Interestingly, pretreatment with levo-2,3-BDO in creeping bentgrass and meso-2,3-BDO in tomato plants enhanced JA and SA signaling pathway-related gene transcript expression levels in different ways. In addition, all tomato plants treated with acibenzolar-S-methyl (as a positive control) withered completely under chilling stress, whereas 2,3-BDO-treated tomato plants exhibited excellent cold tolerance. According to our findings, bio-based 2,3-BDO isomers as sustainable water stress-tolerant agents, levo- and meso-2,3-BDOs, could enhance tolerance to drought and/or chilling stresses in various plants through somewhat different molecular activities without any side effects.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.471-476
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• 2013

Plants are frequently exposed to numerous environmental stresses such as dehydration and high salinity, and have developed elaborate mechanisms to counteract the deleterious effects of stress. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a critical role as an integrator of plant responses to water-limited condition to activate ABA signal transduction pathway. Although perception of ABA has been suggested to be important, the function of each ABA receptor remains elusive in dehydration condition. Here, we show that ABA receptor, pyrabactin resistance-like protein 8 (PYL8), functions in dehydration conditions. Transgenic plants overexpressing PYL8 exhibited hypersensitive phenotype to ABA in seed germination, seedling growth and establishment. We found that hypersensitivity to ABA of transgenic plants results in high degrees of stomatal closure in response to ABA leading to low transpiration rates and ultimately more vulnerable to drought than the wild-type plants. In addition, high expression of ABA maker genes also contributes to altered drought tolerance phenotype. Overall, this work emphasizes the importance of ABA signaling by ABA receptor in stomata during defense response to drought stress.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제40권10호
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• pp.697-705
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• 2017

The maintenance of inorganic phosphate (Pi) homeostasis is essential for plant growth and yield. Plants have evolved strategies to cope with Pi starvation at the transcriptional, post-transcriptional, and post-translational levels, which maximizes its availability. Many transcription factors, miRNAs, and transporters participate in the Pi starvation signaling pathway where their activities are modulated by sugar and phytohormone signaling. Environmental stresses significantly affect the uptake and utilization of nutrients by plants, but their effects on the Pi starvation response remain unclear. Recently, we reported that Pi starvation signaling is affected by abiotic stresses such as salt, abscisic acid, and drought. In this review, we identified transcription factors, such as MYB, WRKY, and zinc finger transcription factors with functions in Pi starvation and other environmental stress signaling. In silico analysis of the promoter regions of Pi starvation-responsive genes, including phosphate transporters, microRNAs, and phosphate starvation-induced genes, suggest that their expression may be regulated by other environmental stresses, such as hormones, drought, cold, heat, and pathogens as well as by Pi starvation. Thus, we suggest the possibility of cross-talk between Pi starvation signaling and other environmental stress signaling pathways.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제39권3호
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• pp.250-257
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• 2016

Abiotic stresses such as drought and low temperature critically restrict plant growth, reproduction, and productivity. Higher plants have developed various defense strategies against these unfavorable conditions. CaPUB1 (Capsicum annuum Putative U-box protein 1) is a hot pepper U-box E3 Ub ligase. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants that constitutively expressed CaPUB1 exhibited drought-sensitive phenotypes, suggesting that it functions as a negative regulator of the drought stress response. In this study, CaPUB1 was over-expressed in rice (Oryza sativa L.), and the phenotypic properties of transgenic rice plants were examined in terms of their drought and cold stress tolerance. Ubi:CaPUB1 T3 transgenic rice plants displayed phenotypes hypersensitive to dehydration, suggesting that its role in the negative regulation of drought stress response is conserved in dicot Arabidopsis and monocot rice plants. In contrast, Ubi:CaPUB1 progeny exhibited phenotypes markedly tolerant to prolonged low temperature ($4^{\circ}C$) treatment, compared to those of wild-type plants, as determined by survival rates, electrolyte leakage, and total chlorophyll content. Cold stress-induced marker genes, including DREB1A, DREB1B, DREB1C, and Cytochrome P450, were more up-regulated by cold treatment in Ubi:CaPUB1 plants than in wild-type plants. These results suggest that CaPUB1 serves as both a negative regulator of the drought stress response and a positive regulator of the cold stress response in transgenic rice plants. This raises the possibility that CaPUB1 participates in the cross-talk between drought and low-temperature signaling pathways.

• 생명과학회지
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.196-208
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• 2014

식물의 생활사 동안 물부족 스트레스는 식물의 생장과 발달에 해로운 영향을 끼치는 대표적인 스트레스이다. 유용 작물의 생산성을 증가시키기 위하여, 물부족 스트레스를 극복하는 일은 식물학 연구 분야에서 가장 중요한 이슈로 대두되어 왔다. 식물의 호르몬 중에서 앱시스산은 물부족 스트레스에 대해 식물이 저항성을 나타내는데 가장 중요한 호르몬으로서 역할을 수행하며, 씨앗의 발아, 기공의 개폐, 유묘의 성장과 같은 다양한 발달 과정에도 관여하고 있다. 그러므로, 앱시스산에 의해 매개되는 식물의 신호전달 기작을 명확히 이해하는 것은 물부족 스트레스에 대한 내성을 갖는 유용 식물을 생산해내기 위해 가장 효과적인 방법이 될 것이다. 한편, 인산화, 유비퀴틴화와 같은 번역 후 변형 과정은 식물이 다양한 환경적 스트레스 하에서 신속하게 적응을 하기 위해 가장 효율적인 기작으로 인식되어 왔는데, 이는 전사수준에서의 조절과 달리 이미 존재하는 신호전달 물질의 활성과 안정성을 직접적으로 빠르게 조절할 수 있기 때문이다. 본 총설에서는 앱시스산의 신호전달 과정과 관련된 최근 연구 동향을 업데이트하고자 하며, 특히 이러한 신호전달 과정을 앱시스산 수송, 인식, 신호전달 및 번역 후 변형 과정에 초점을 맞추어 알아보고자 한다. 또한 그러한 조절 기작이 농업분야에서 유용 작물을 생산하는데 어떻게 적용될 수 있는지에 대한 향후 전망에 대해서도 기술하고자 한다.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.209-220
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• 2013

Root colonization by Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 induces systemic drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Microarray analysis was performed using the 22,800-gene Affymetrix GeneChips to identify differentially-expressed genes from plants colonized with or without P. chlororaphis O6 under drought stressed conditions or normal growth conditions. Root colonization in plants grown under regular irrigation condition increased transcript accumulation from genes associated with defense, response to reactive oxygen species, and auxin- and jasmonic acid-responsive genes, but decreased transcription factors associated with ethylene and abscisic acid signaling. The cluster of genes involved in plant disease resistance were up-regulated, but the set of drought signaling response genes were down-regulated in the P. chlororaphis O6-colonized under drought stress plants compared to those of the drought stressed plants without bacterial treatment. Transcripts of the jasmonic acid-marker genes, VSP1 and pdf-1.2, the salicylic acid regulated gene, PR-1, and the ethylene-response gene, HEL, also were up-regulated in plants colonized by P. chlororaphis O6, but differed in their responsiveness to drought stress. These data show how gene expression in plants lacking adequate water can be remarkably influenced by microbial colonization leading to plant protection, and the activation of the plant defense signal pathway induced by root colonization of P. chlororaphis O6 might be a key element for induced systemic tolerance by microbes.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.306-314
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• 2018

Korean ginseng (Panax ginseng) has long been cultivated as an important economic medicinal plant. Owing to the seasonal and long-term agricultural cultivation methods of Korean ginseng, they are always vulnerable to various environmental stress conditions. ABSCISIC ACID (ABA) is an essential plant hormone associated with seed development and diverse abiotic stress responses including drought, cold and salinity stress. By modulating ABA responses, plants can regulate their immune responses and growth patterns to increase their ability to tolerate stress. With recent advances in genome sequencing technology, we first reported the functional features of genes related to canonical ABA signaling pathway in P. ginseng genome. Based on the protein sequences and functional genomic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana, the ABA related genes were successfully identified. Our functional genomic characterizations clearly showed that the ABA signaling related genes consisting the ABA receptor proteins (PgPYLs), kinase family (PgSnRKs) and transcription factors (PgABFs, PgABI3s and PgABI5s) were evolutionary conserved in the P. ginseng genome. We confirmed that overexpressing ABA related genes of P. ginseng completely restored the ABA responses and stress tolerance in ABA defective Arabidopsis mutants. Finally, tissue and age specific spatio-temporal expression patterns of the identified ABA-related genes in P. ginseng tissues were also classified using various available RNA sequencing data. This study provides ABA signal transduction related genes and their functional genomic information related to the growth and development of Korean ginseng. Additionally, the results of this study could be useful in the breeding or artificial selection of ginseng which is resistant to various stresses.

• Molecules and Cells
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.111-118
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• 2016

MiR399f plays a crucial role in maintaining phosphate homeostasis in Arabidopsis thaliana. Under phosphate starvation conditions, AtMYB2, which plays a role in plant salt and drought stress responses, directly regulates the expression of miR399f. In this study, we found that miR399f also participates in plant responses to abscisic acid (ABA), and to abiotic stresses including salt and drought. Salt and ABA treatment induced the expression of miR399f, as confirmed by histochemical analysis of promoter-GUS fusions. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing miR399f (miR399f-OE) exhibited enhanced tolerance to salt stress and exogenous ABA, but hypersensitivity to drought. Our in silico analysis identified ABF3 and CSP41b as putative target genes of miR399f, and expression analysis revealed that mRNA levels of ABF3 and CSP41b decreased remarkably in miR399f-OE plants under salt stress and in response to treatment with ABA. Moreover, we showed that activation of stress-responsive gene expression in response to salt stress and ABA treatment was impaired in miR399f-OE plants. Thus, these results suggested that in addition to phosphate starvation signaling, miR399f might also modulates plant responses to salt, ABA, and drought, by regulating the expression of newly discovered target genes such as ABF3 and CSP41b.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.30-39
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• 2024

The conservation of the endangered Korean fir, Abies koreana, is of critical ecological importance. In our previous study, a yeast-like fungus identified as Aureobasidium pullulans AK10, was isolated and shown to enhance drought tolerance in A. koreana seedlings. In this study, the effectiveness of Au. pullulans AK10 treatment in enhancing drought tolerance in A. koreana was confirmed. Furthermore, using transcriptome analysis, we compared A. koreana seedlings treated with Au. pullulans AK10 to untreated controls under drought conditions to elucidate the molecular responses involved in increased drought tolerance. Our findings revealed a predominance of downregulated genes in the treated seedlings, suggesting a strategic reallocation of resources to enhance stress defense. Further exploration of enriched Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways and protein-protein interaction networks revealed significant alterations in functional systems known to fortify drought tolerance, including the terpenoid backbone biosynthesis, calcium signaling pathway, pyruvate metabolism, brassinosteroid biosynthesis, and, crucially, flavonoid biosynthesis, renowned for enhancing plant drought resistance. These findings deepen our comprehension of how AK10 biostimulation enhances the resilience of A. koreana to drought stress, marking a substantial advancement in the effort to conserve this endangered tree species through environmentally sustainable treatment.