Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa

Hesham M. Abdullah; Jessica Rodriguez; Jeffrey M. Salacup; Isla S. Castañeda; Danny J. Schnell; Ashwani Pareek; Om Parkash Dhankher

doi:10.3390/ijms22105173

journal article Open Access May 13, 2021

Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa

Hesham M. Abdullah Jessica Rodriguez Jeffrey M. Salacup Isla S. Castañeda

Danny J. Schnell Ashwani Pareek

Om Parkash Dhankher

International Journal of Molecular Sciences Vol. 22 No. 10 pp. 5173 · MDPI AG

View at Publisher Save 10.3390/ijms22105173

Abstract

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 wax synthase/acyl-CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WSD1) 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 WSD1 transcripts by mannitol, NaCl, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments, particularly in Arabidopsis thaliana 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 Camelina sativa (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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Details

Published: May 13, 2021
Vol/Issue: 22(10)
Pages: 5173
License: View

Authors

H

Hesham M. Abdullah

Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA; Biotechnology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo 11651, Egypt; Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

J

Jessica Rodriguez

Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

J

Jeffrey M. Salacup

Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

I

Isla S. Castañeda

Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

D

Danny J. Schnell

Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

A

Ashwani Pareek

Stress Physiology and Molecular Biology Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 100067, India

O

Om Parkash Dhankher

Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

Funding

U.S. Department of Energy Award: DE-AR0000200

Cultural and Educational Bureau of the Egyptian Embassy- Washington DC Award: GM-0976

USDA‐AFRI hatch program Award: MAS 00508

Cite This Article

Hesham M. Abdullah, Jessica Rodriguez, Jeffrey M. Salacup, et al. (2021). Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(10), 5173. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22105173

Increased Cuticle Waxes by Overexpression of WSD1 Improves Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa

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