Abstract
Calcium serves as an important second messenger in many adaptational and developmental processes of plants. The CDPK-related kinases (CRKs) are a type of serine-threonine kinases belonging to the CDPK-SnRK superfamily. In this study, a T-DNA insertion mutant of AtCRK1 (crk1-1) was employed to explore the possible function of AtCRK1 in salt tolerance. Our results indicated that crk1-1 transformants had a decreased tolerance to salt stress during seed germination compared with both wild-type plants and the complemented transgenic lines, in which the full-length genomic AtCRK1 clone with a 2.3 kb promoter was inserted into crk1-1 to drive CRK1 expression under the control of the CRK1 promoter. Furthermore, a higher malondialdehyde (MDA) level and lower free proline content were measured in crk1-1 plants. The qRT-PCR analyses revealed that the transcription of several stress-related genes was decreased in crk1-1 plants. These results indicate that AtCRK1 is involved in the tolerance to salt stress by changing both MDA and proline levels in Arabidopsis, and may act as a positive regulator in the induction of stress-response gene transcription.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, GJ, Muir SR, Sanders D (1995) Release of Ca2+ from individual plant vacuoles by both InsP3 and cyclic ADP-ribose. Science 268:735–737
Cheng SH, Sheen J, Gerrish C, Bolwell GP (2001) Molecular identification of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase as a substrate of a specific constitutively active Arabidopsis CDPK expressed in maize protoplasts. FEBS Lett 503:185–188
Clough SJ, Bent AF (1998) Floral dip: a simplified method for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J 16:735–743
Farmer PK, Choi JH (1999) Calcium and phospholipid activation of a recombinant calcium-dependent protein kinase (DcCPK1) from carrot (Daucus carota L). Biochim Biophys Acta 1434:6–17
Furumoto T, Ogawa N, Hata S, Izui K (1996) Plant calcium-dependent protein kinase-related kinases (CRKs) do not require calcium for their activities. FEBS Lett 396:147–151
Gao X, Ren F, Lu YT (2006) The Arabidopsis mutant stg1 identifies a function for TBP-associated factor 10 in plant osmotic stress adaptation. Plant Cell Physiol 47:1285–1294
Hodges DM, DeLong JM, Forney CF, Prange RK (1999) Improving the thiobarbituric acid-reactive-substances assay for estimating lipid peroxidation in plant tissues containing anthocyanin and other interfering compounds Planta 207:604–611
Huang GT, Ma SL, Bai LP, Zhang L, Ma H, Jia P, Liu J, Zhong M, Guo ZF (2012) Signal transduction during cold, salt, and drought stresses in plants. Mol Biol Rep 39:969–987
Kudla J, Batistic O, Hashimoto K (2010) Calcium signals: the lead currency of plant information processing. Plant Cell 22:541–563
Liu L, Hu X, Song J, Zong X, Li D (2009) Over-expression of a Zea mays L. protein phosphatase 2C gene (ZmPP2C) in Arabidopsis thaliana decreases tolerance to salt and drought. J Plant Physiol 166:531–542
Livak KJ, Schmittgen TD (2001) Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2(-Delta Delta C(T)) Method. Methods 25:402–408
Onate-Sanchez L, Vicente-Carbajosa J (2008) DNA-free RNA isolation protocols for Arabidopsis thaliana, including seeds and siliques. BMC Res Notes 1:93
Rao XL, Zhang XH, Li RJ, Shi HT, Lu YT (2011) A calcium sensorinteracting protein kinase negatively regulates salt stress tolerance in rice (Oryza sativa). Functional Plant Biology 38:441–450
Saijo Y, Hata S, Kyozuka J, Shimamoto K, Izui K (2000) Overexpression of a single Ca2+-dependent protein kinase confers both cold and salt/drought tolerance on rice plants. Plant J 23: 319–327
Sanders D, Brownlee C, Harper JF (1999) Communicating with calcium. Plant Cell 11:691–706
Sanders D, Pelloux J, Brownlee C, Harper JF (2002) Calcium at the crossroads of signaling. Plant Cell 14Suppl:S401–417
Schmidt R, Schippers JH, Welker A, Mieulet D, Guiderdoni E, Mueller-Roeber B (2012) Transcription factor OsHsfC1b regulates salt tolerance and development in Oryza sativa ssp. japonica. AoB Plants 2012:pls011
Swindell WR, Huebner M, Weber AP (2007) Transcriptional profiling of Arabidopsis heat shock proteins and transcription factors reveals extensive overlap between heat and non-heat stress response pathways. BMC Genomics 8:125
Troll W, Lindsley J (1955). A photometric method for the determination of proline. J Biol Chem 215:655–660
Umezawa T, Fujita M, Fujita Y, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (2006) Engineering drought tolerance in plants: discovering and tailoring genes to unlock the future. Curr Opin Biotechnol 17:113–122
Wang L, Li X, Chen S, Liu G (2009) Enhanced drought tolerance in transgenic Leymus chinensis plants with constitutively expressed wheat TaLEA3. Biotechnol Lett 31:313–319
Xiong, L, Zhu JK (2001) Abiotic stress signal transduction in plants: Molecular and genetic perspectives. Physiol Plant 112:152–166
Xu J, Tian YS, Peng RH, Xiong AS, Zhu B, Jin XF, Gao F, Fu XY, Hou XL, Yao QH (2010) AtCPK6, a functionally redundant and positive regulator involved in salt/drought stress tolerance in Arabidopsis. Planta 231:1251–1260
Yokoi S, Bressan RA, Hasegawa PM (2002) Salt stress tolerance of plants. JIRCAS Working Report:25-33
Zhu JK (2001) Plant salt tolerance. Trends Plant Sci 6:66–71
Zhu JK (2002) Salt and drought stress signal transduction in plants. Annu Rev Plant Biol 53:247–273
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tao, XC., Lu, YT. Loss of AtCRK1 gene function in Arabidopsis thaliana decreases tolerance to salt. J. Plant Biol. 56, 306–314 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-012-0352-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-012-0352-z