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CDK8 is a key subunit of Mediator complex, a large multiprotein complex that is a fundamental part of the conserved eukaryotic transcriptional machinery. However, the biological functions of CDK8 in plant abiotic stress responses remain largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrated CDK8 as a critical regulator in the abscisic acid (ABA) signaling and drought response pathways in Arabidopsis. Compared to wild-type, cdk8 mutants showed reduced sensitivity to ABA, impaired stomatal apertures and hypersensitivity to drought stress. Transcriptomic and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that CDK8 positively regulates the transcription of several ABA-responsive genes, probably through promoting the recruitment of RNA polymerase II to their promoters. We discovered that both CDK8 and SnRK2.6 interact physically with an ERF/AP2 transcription factor RAP2.6, which can directly bind to the promoters of RD29A and COLD-REGULATED 15A (COR15A) with GCC or DRE elements, thereby promoting their expression. Importantly, we also showed that CDK8 is essential for the ABA-induced expression of RAP2.6 and RAP2.6-mediated upregulation of ABA-responsive genes, indicating that CDK8 could link the SnRK2.6-mediated ABA signaling to RNA polymerase II to promote immediate transcriptional response to ABA and drought signals. Overall, our data provide new insights into the roles of CDK8 in modulating ABA signaling and drought responses.

Drought stress is one of the disadvantageous environmental conditions for plant growth and reproduction. Given the importance of abscisic acid (ABA) to plant growth and abiotic stress responses, identification of novel components involved in ABA signalling transduction is critical. In this study, we screened numerous Arabidopsis thaliana mutants by seed germination assay and identified a mutant mlp43 (major latex protein-like 43) with decreased ABA sensitivity in seed germination. The mlp43 mutant was sensitive to drought stress while the MLP43-overexpressed transgenic plants were drought tolerant. The tissue-specific expression pattern analysis showed that MLP43 was predominantly expressed in cotyledons, primary roots and apical meristems, and a subcellular localization study indicated that MLP43 was localized in the nucleus and cytoplasm. Physiological and biochemical analyses indicated that MLP43 functioned as a positive regulator in ABA- and drought-stress responses in Arabidopsis through regulating water loss efficiency, electrolyte leakage, ROS levels, and as well as ABA-responsive gene expression. Moreover, metabolite profiling analysis indicated that MLP43 could modulate the production of primary metabolites under drought stress conditions. Reconstitution of ABA signalling components in Arabidopsis protoplasts indicated that MLP43 was involved in ABA signalling transduction and acted upstream of SnRK2s by directly interacting with SnRK2.6 and ABF1 in a yeast two-hybrid assay. Moreover, ABA and drought stress down-regulated MLP43 expression as a negative feedback loop regulation to the performance of MLP43 in ABA and drought stress responses. Therefore, this study provided new insights for interpretation of physiological and molecular mechanisms of Arabidopsis MLP43 mediating ABA signalling transduction and drought stress responses.

SnRK2.6 (SUCROSE NONFERMENTING 1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE2.6) has been characterized as a molecular switch for the intracellular abscisic acid (ABA) signal-transduction pathway. Normally, SnRK2.6 is kept in an “off” state, forming a binary complex with protein phosphatase type 2Cs (PP2Cs). Upon stressful conditions, SnRK2.6 turns into an “on” state by its release from PP2Cs and then phosphorylation at Ser175. However, how the ”on” and “off” states for SnRK2.6 are fine-tuned, thereby controlling the initiation and braking processes of ABA signaling, is still largely unclear. SnRK2.6 activity was tightly regulated through protein post-translational modifications (PTM), such as persulfidation and phosphorylation. Taking advantage of molecular dynamics simulations, our results showed that Cys131/137 persulfidation on SnRK2.6 induces destabilized binding and weakened interactions between SnRK2.6 and HAB1 (HYPERSENSITIVE TO ABA1), an important PP2C family protein. This unfavorable effect on the association of the SnRK2.6–HAB1 complex suggests that persulfidation functions are a positive regulator of ABA signaling initiation. In addition, Ser267 phosphorylation in persulfidated SnRK2.6 renders a stable physical association between SnRK2.6 and HAB1, a key characterization for SnRK2.6 inhibition. Rather than Ser175, HAB1 cannot dephosphorylate Ser267 in SnRK2.6, which implies that the retained phosphorylation status of Ser267 could ensure that the activated SnRK2.6 reforms the binary complex to cease ABA signaling. Taken together, our findings expand current knowledge concerning the regulation of persulfidation and phosphorylation on the state transition of SnRK2.6 and provide insights into the fine-tuned mechanism of ABA signaling.

Cell surface receptors perceive signals from the environment and transfer them to the interior of the cell. The Arabidopsis thaliana PR5 receptor-like kinase (AtPR5K) subfamily consists of three members with extracellular domains that share sequence similarity with the PR5 proteins. In this study, we characterized the role of AtPR5K2 in plant drought-stress signaling. AtPR5K2 is predominantly expressed in leaves and localized to the plasma membrane. The atpr5k2-1 mutant showed tolerance to dehydration stress, while AtPR5K2 -overexpressing plants was hypersensitive to drought. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays showed that AtPR5K2 physically interacted with the type 2C protein phosphatases ABA-insensitive 1 (ABI1) and ABI2 and the SNF1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2.6) proteins, all of which are involved in the initiation of abscisic acid (ABA) signaling; however, these interactions were inhibited by treatments of exogenous ABA. Moreover, AtPR5K2 was found to phosphorylate ABI1 and ABI2, but not SnRK2.6. Taken together, these results suggest that AtPR5K2 participates in ABA-dependent drought-stress signaling through the phosphorylation of ABI1 and ABI2.

Key messageThe kinase-associated protein phosphatase, KAPP, is negatively involved in abscisic acid (ABA) signaling. KAPP interacts physically with SnRK2.2, SnRK2.3 and SnRK2.6, and functionally acts upstream of SnRK2.2 and SnRK2.3.The kinase-associated protein phosphatase (KAPP) has been reported to be involved in the regulation of many developmental and signaling events, but it remains unknown whether KAPP is involved in ABA signaling. Here, we report that KAPP is negatively involved in ABA-mediated seed germination and early seedling growth in Arabidopsis thaliana. The two loss-of-function mutants of KAPP, kapp-1 and kapp-2, exhibit increased ABA sensitivity in ABA-induced seed germination inhibition and post-germination growth arrest. The three closely-related protein kinase, (SNF1)-related protein kinase SnRK2.2, SnRK2.3 and SnRK2.6, which play critical roles in ABA signaling, interact and co-localize with KAPP. Genetic evidence showed that the ABA-hypersensitive phenotypes caused by KAPP mutation were suppressed by the double mutation of SnRK2.2 and SnRK2.3, indicating that KAPP functions upstream of SnRK2.2 and SnRK2.3 in ABA signaling. RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that KAPP mutation affects expression of multiple ABA-responsive genes. These results demonstrated that KAPP is negatively involved in plant response to ABA, which help to understand the complicated ABA signaling mechanism.

The sucrose non-fermenting 1 (SNF1)-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2) family members have been discovered to regulate abiotic stress response via the abscisic acid (ABA)-independent and dependent signaling pathways. SnRK2.6, also known as Open Stomata 1 (OST1), is a serine/threonine protein kinase that plays critical roles in linking ABA receptor complexes and downstream components such as transcription factors and anion channels to regulate stress response. Asides from its well-known regulatory roles in stomatal movement and cold stress response, OST1 has also been demonstrated recently to modulate major developmental roles of flowering and growth in plants. In this review, we will discuss about the various roles of OST1 as well as the ‘doors’ that OST1 can ‘open’ to help plants perform stress adaptation. Therefore, we will address how OST1 can regulate stomata apertures, cold stress tolerance as well as other aspects of its emerging roles such as balancing flowering and root growth in response to drought.

Magnesium-chelatase H subunit [CHLH/putative abscisic acid (ABA) receptor ABAR] positively regulates guard cell signalling in response to ABA, but the molecular mechanism remains largely unknown. A member of the sucrose nonfermenting 1 (SNF1)-related protein kinase 2 family, SnRK2.6/open stomata 1 (OST1)/SRK2E, which plays a critical role in ABA signalling in Arabidopsis guard cells, interacts with ABAR/CHLH. Neither mutation nor over-expression of the ABAR gene affects significantly ABA-insensitive phenotypes of stomatal movement in the OST1 knockout mutant allele srk2e. However, OST1 over-expression suppresses ABA-insensitive phenotypes of the ABAR mutant allele cch in stomatal movement. These genetic data support that OST1 functions downstream of ABAR in ABA signalling in guard cells. Consistent with this, ABAR protein is phosphorylated, but independently of the OST1 protein kinase. Two ABAR mutant alleles, cch and rtl1, show ABA insensitivity in ABA-induced reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide production, as well as in ABA-activated phosphorylation of a K⁺ inward channel KAT1 in guard cells, which is consistent with that observed in the pyr1 pyl1 pyl2 pyl4 quadruple mutant of the well-characterized ABA receptor PYR/PYL/RCAR family acting upstream of OST1. These findings suggest that ABAR shares, at least in part, downstream signalling components with PYR/PYL/RCAR receptors for ABA in guard cells; though cch and rtl1 show strong ABA-insensitive phenotypes in both ABA-induced stomatal closure and inhibition of stomatal opening, while the pyr1 pyl1 pyl2 pyl4 quadruple mutant shows strong ABA insensitivity only in ABA-induced stomatal closure. These data establish a link between ABAR/CHLH and SnRK2.6/OST1 in guard cell signalling in response to ABA.