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Abiotic stress has a significant impact on plant growth and development. It causes changes in the subcellular organelles, which, due to their stress sensitivity, can be affected. Cellular components involved in the abiotic stress response include dehydrins, widely distributed proteins forming a class II of late embryogenesis abundant protein family with characteristic properties including the presence of evolutionarily conserved sequence motifs (including lysine-rich K-segment, N-terminal Y-segment, and often phosphorylated S motif) and high hydrophilicity and disordered structure in the unbound state. Selected dehydrins and few poorly characterized dehydrin-like proteins participate in cellular stress acclimation and are also shown to interact with organelles. Through their functioning in stabilizing biological membranes and binding reactive oxygen species, dehydrins and dehydrin-like proteins contribute to the protection of fragile organellar structures under adverse conditions. Our review characterizes the participation of plant dehydrins and dehydrin-like proteins (including some organellar proteins) in plant acclimation to diverse abiotic stress conditions and summarizes recent updates on their structure (the identification of dehydrin less conserved motifs), classification (new proposed subclasses), tissue- and developmentally specific accumulation, and key cellular activities (including organellar protection under stress acclimation). Recent findings on the subcellular localization (with emphasis on the mitochondria and plastids) and prospective applications of dehydrins and dehydrin-like proteins in functional studies to alleviate the harmful stress consequences by means of plant genetic engineering and a genome editing strategy are also discussed.

Drought stress-induced crop loss has been considerably increased in recent years because of global warming and changing rainfall pattern. Natural drought-tolerant plants entail the recruitment of a variety of metabolites and low molecular weight proteins to negate the detrimental effects of drought stress. Dehydrin (DHN) proteins are one such class of proteins that accumulate in plants during drought and associated stress conditions. These proteins are highly hydrophilic and perform multifaceted roles in the protection of plant cells during drought stress conditions. Evidence gathered over the years suggests that DHN proteins impart drought stress tolerance by enhancing the water retention capacity, elevating chlorophyll content, maintaining photosynthetic machinery, activating ROS detoxification, and promoting the accumulation of compatible solutes, among others. Overexpression studies have indicated that these proteins can be effectively targeted to mitigate the negative effects of drought stress and for the development of drought stress-tolerant crops to feed the ever-growing population in the near future. In this review, we describe the mechanism of DHNs mediated drought stress tolerance in plants and their interaction with several phytohormones to provide an in-depth understanding of DHNs function.

Dehydration proteins (dehydrins) are group 2 members of the late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) protein family. The protein architecture of dehydrins can be described by the presence of three types of conserved sequence motifs that have been named the K-, Y-, and S-segments. By definition, a dehydrin must contain at least one copy of the lysine-rich K-segment. Abiotic stresses such as drought, cold, and salinity cause the upregulation of dehydrin mRNA and protein levels. Despite the large body of genetic and protein evidence of the importance of these proteins in stress response, the in vivo protective mechanism is not fully known. In vitro experimental evidence from biochemical assays and localization experiments suggests multiple roles for dehydrins, including membrane protection, cryoprotection of enzymes, and protection from reactive oxygen species. Membrane binding by dehydrins is likely to be as a peripheral membrane protein, since the protein sequences are highly hydrophilic and contain many charged amino acids. Because of this, dehydrins in solution are intrinsically disordered proteins, that is, they have no well-defined secondary or tertiary structure. Despite their disorder, dehydrins have been shown to gain structure when bound to ligands such as membranes, and to possibly change their oligomeric state when bound to ions. We review what is currently known about dehydrin sequences and their structures, and examine the various ligands that have been shown to bind to this family of proteins.

Background Dehydrin (DHN) proteins, belong to subfamily members of late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins, are widely recognized as key determinants in plant abiotic stress tolerance. Results In this study, we identified eleven DHN genes in Zea mays and systematically analyzed their evolutionary relationships, structural features, cis -acting elements, expression patterns, protein interaction relation, and function validation in drought resistance. All ZmDHN proteins contained K-segment, and were classified into three subgroups, i.e., KnS-, SKn-, and YnSKn-type. Promoter analysis results showed abundant stress-responsive cis -elements were identified in ZmDHN promoter regions, especially MBS and ABRE elements. Consistently, the most ZmDHN s were induced by cold, heat, salt, and drought stresses, except ZmDHN7 to ZmDHN11 . Protein interaction and transcriptome data analysis suggested that ZmDHN1 might interact with cell division protein, ZmDHN3 interacted with nucleic acid binding protein, ZmDHN4 interacted with alpha/beta-hydrolases, ZmDHN5 interacted with ATP synthase, ZmDHN6 interacted with glycine-rich RNA-binding protein, ZmDHN8 and ZmDHN9 interacted with late embryogenesis abundant protein Lea14-A under drought stress. Functional validation results demonstrated that ZmDHN3 was located in the cytoplasm, and overexpression of ZmDHN3 in maize enhanced drought tolerance, with higher relative water content and lower relative electrolyte leakage compared with wild-type maize plants. Conclusions This study increases our understanding of DHN proteins, demonstrates that ZmDHN3 improves drought tolerance in maize, and provides candidate genes for further molecular breeding to improve maize drought stress tolerance.

Water stress reduces crop production significantly, and climate change has further aggravated the problem mainly in arid and semi-arid regions. This was the first study on the possible effects of β-sitosterol application in ameliorating the deleterious changes in wheat induced by water stress under field condition and drip irrigation regimes. A field experiment with the split-plot design was conducted, and wheat plants were foliar sprayed with four β-sitosterol (BBS) concentrations (0, 25, 75, and 100 mg L−1) and two irrigation regimes [50 and 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc)]. Water stress without BBS treatment reduced biological yield, grain yield, harvest index, and photosynthetic efficiency significantly by 28.9%, 42.8%, 19.6%, and 20.5% compared with the well-watered plants, respectively. Proline content increased in water-stressed and BSS-treated plants, owing to a significant role in cellular osmotic adjustment. Application of BSS was effective in reducing the generation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hence the malondialdehyde content significantly in water-stressed and well-watered wheat plants. Application of BSS up-regulated the activity of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, POD, and APX) significantly and increased the content of tocopherol, ascorbic acid, and carotene thereby reducing the levels of reactive oxygen species. The increased antioxidant system in BSS treated plants was further supported by the expression level of SOD and dehydrin genes in both water-stressed and well-watered plants. In the present study, the application of BBS at 100 mg L−1 was beneficial and can be recommended for improving the growth and yield of the wheat crop under water stress.

In the present study, the effect of colonization of different doses of T. harzianum Th-56 strain in rice genotypes were evaluated under drought stress. The rice genotypes treated with increasing dose of T. harzianum strain Th-56 showed better drought tolerance as compared with untreated control plant. There was significant change in malondialdehyde, proline, higher superoxide dismutase level, plant height, total dry matter, relative chlorophyll content, leaf rolling, leaf tip burn, and the number of scorched/senesced leaves in T. harzianum Th-56 treated rice genotypes under drought stress. This was corroborated with altered expression of aquaporin and dehydrin genes in T. harzianum Th-56 treated rice genotypes. The present findings suggest that a dose of 30 g/L was the most effective in improving drought tolerance in rice, and its potential exploitation will contribute to the advancement of rice genotypes to sustain crop productivity under drought stress. Interaction studies of T. harzianum with three aromatic rice genotypes suggested that PSD-17 was highly benefitted from T. harzianum colonization under drought stress.

Background In response to drought stress (DS), plants undergo complex processes that entail significant transcriptome reprogramming. However, the intricate relationship between the dynamic alterations in the three-dimensional (3D) genome and the modulation of gene co-expression in drought responses remains a relatively unexplored area. Results In this study, we reconstruct high-resolution 3D genome maps based on genomic regions marked by H3K9ac, an active histone modification that dynamically responds to soil water variations in rice. We discover a genome-wide disconnection of 3D genome contact upon DS with over 10,000 chromatin loops lost, which are partially recovered in the subsequent re-watering. Loops integrating promoter–promoter interactions (PPI) contribute to gene expression in addition to basal H3K9ac modifications. Moreover, H3K9ac-marked promoter regions with high affinities in mediating PPIs, termed as super-promoter regions (SPRs), integrate spatially clustered PPIs in a super-enhancer-like manner. Interestingly, the knockout mutation of OsbZIP23, a well-defined DS-responsive transcription factor, leads to the disassociation of over 80% DS-specific PPIs and decreased expression of the corresponding genes under DS. As a case study, we show how OsbZIP23 integrates the PPI cluster formation and the co-expression of four dehydrin genes, RAB16A – D , through targeting the RAB16C SPR in a stress signaling-dependent manner. Conclusions Our high-resolution 3D genome maps unveil the principles and details of dynamic genome folding in response to water supply variations and illustrate OsbZIP23 as an indispensable integrator of the yet unique 3D genome organization that is essential for gene co-expression under DS in rice.

Salt stress influences the physiological, biochemical, and molecular processes in plants affecting growth and development. This research aims to determine the salt stress tolerance of wild pear genotypes AH-1, AH-2, AH-3 ( Pyrus elaeagrifolia Pall.), Ankara Pear clone 19 (AN-19) ( P. communis L.) and clonal pear rootstocks OHxF 333 ( P. communis L.) and quince (QA) ( Cydonia oblonga Mill.) under in vitro conditions. Microshoots of each genotype were cultured in MS medium and subjected to NaCl combined with CaCl 2 at four different concentrations for 4 weeks. The survival percentage of the OHxF 333, AN-19, QA, and AH-3 microshoots was found to be high (77.66–97.16%) at high salt concentrations. Number of shoots was significantly lower (1.0–2.52/explant) in salt treatments. While shoot length was generally similar to the control, shoot thickness, callus diameter, and fresh weight decreased with increasing salt concentration. Dehydrin gene ( MdDHN ) expression analysis revealed that QA, AH-3, OHxF 333, AH-2, and AN-19 genotypes responded to salinity stress earlier than others. The genotypes AH-3, OHxF 333, QA, and AN-19 exhibiting high survival percentage and earlier MdDHN expression were further evaluated for antioxidant activity (SOD, CAT, APX), total chlorophyll and proline contents and mineral elements that are involved in salt stress response of plants. Proline, H 2 O 2 content and SOD activity were highest in AH-3, APX, and CAT activity were highest in QA at high salt concentration. Our findings revealed the salt stress response of Pyrus spp. and Cydonia oblonga genotypes used as rootstocks for pears.

Key message NtTAS14-like1 enhances osmotic tolerance through coordinately activating the expression of osmotic- and ABA-related genes. Osmotic stress is one of the most important limiting factors for tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum ) growth and development. Dehydrin proteins are widely involved in plant adaptation to osmotic stress, but few of these proteins have been functionally characterized in tobacco. Here, to identify genes required for osmotic stress response in tobacco, an encoding dehydrin protein gene NtTAS14-like1 was isolated based on RNA sequence data. The expression of NtTAS14-like1 was obviously induced by mannitol and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. Knock down of NtTAS14-like1 expression reduced osmotic tolerance, while overexpression of NtTAS14-like1 conferred tolerance to osmotic stress in transgenic tobacco plants, as determined by physiological analysis of the relative electrolyte leakage and malonaldehyde accumulation. Further expression analysis by quantitative real-time PCR indicated that NtTAS14-like1 participates in osmotic stress response possibly through coordinately activating osmotic- and ABA-related genes expression, such as late embryogenesis abundant ( NtLEA5 ), early responsive to dehydration 10C ( NtERD10C ) , calcium-dependent protein kinase 2 ( NtCDPK2 ), ABA-responsive element-binding protein ( NtAREB ), ABA-responsive element-binding factor 1 ( NtABF1 ), dehydration-responsive element-binding genes ( NtDREB2A ), xanthoxin dehydrogenase/reductase ( NtABA2 ) , ABA-aldehyde oxidase 3 ( NtAAO3 ) , 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase ( NtNCED3 ). Together, this study will facilitate to improve our understandings of molecular and functional properties of plant TAS14 proteins and to improve genetic evidence on the involvement of the NtTAS14-like1 in osmotic stress response of tobacco.

Summary Dehydrins and aquaporins play crucial roles in plant growth and stress responses by acting as protector and controlling water transport across membranes, respectively. MsDHN1 (dehydrin) and MsPIP2;1 (aquaporin) were demonstrated to interact with a membrane‐anchored MYB protein, MsmMYB (as mMYB) in plasma membrane under normal condition. MsDHN1, MsPIP2;1 and MsDHN1‐MsPIP2;1 positively regulated alfalfa tolerance to water deficiency. Water deficiency caused phosphorylation of MsPIP2;1 at Ser 272, which led to release C terminus of mMYB (mMYBΔ83) from plasma membrane and translocate to nucleus, where C terminus of MsDHN1 interacted with mMYBΔ83, and promoted mMYBΔ83 transcriptional activity in response to water deficiency. Overexpression of mMYB and mMYBΔ83 down‐regulated the expression of MsCESA3, but up‐regulated MsCESA7 expression by directly binding to their promoters, and resulted in high drought tolerance in transgenic hairy roots. These results indicate that the MsDHN1‐MsPIP2;1‐MsMYB module serves as a key regulator in alfalfa against drought stress.