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bHLH104 confers tolerance to cadmium stress in Arabidopsis thaliana
Author(s) -
Yao Xiani,
Cai Yuerong,
Yu Diqiu,
Liang Gang
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of integrative plant biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.734
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1744-7909
pISSN - 1672-9072
DOI - 10.1111/jipb.12658
Subject(s) - arabidopsis , mutant , arabidopsis thaliana , downregulation and upregulation , transcription factor , cadmium , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , function (biology) , chemistry , genetics , organic chemistry
Cd is a non‐essential heavy metal that is toxic to both plants and animals. Here, we reveal that the transcription factor bHLH104 positively regulates Cd tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana . We show that Fe deficiency‐responsive genes were induced by Cd treatment, and that their upregulation was suppressed in bhlh104 loss‐of‐function mutants, but enhanced upon overexpression of bHLH104 . Correspondingly, the bhlh104 mutants displayed sensitivity to Cd stress, whereas plants overexpressing bHLH104 exhibited enhanced Cd tolerance. Further analysis suggested that bHLH104 positively regulates four heavy metal detoxification‐associated genes, IREG2 , MTP3 , HMA3 and NAS4 , which play roles in Cd sequestration and tolerance. The bHLH104 overexpression plants accumulated high levels of Cd in the root but low levels of Cd in the shoot, which might contribute to the Cd tolerance in those lines. The present study thus points to bHLH104 as a potentially useful tool for genetic engineering of plants with enhanced Cd tolerance.