Journal Article

Stress-induced nuclear translocation of ONAC023 improves drought and heat tolerance through multiple processes in rice

Wang, Yao, Chang, Yu, Ye, Tiantian, Fang, Yujie, Tu, Haifu, Xiong, Lizhong, Ye, Ying, Li, Xiaokai, Liu, Jiahan

2024

Overview

Drought and heat are major abiotic stresses frequently coinciding to threaten rice production. Despite hundreds of stress-related genes being identified, only a few have been confirmed to confer resistance to multiple stresses in crops. Here we report ONAC023, a hub stress regulator that integrates the regulations of both drought and heat tolerance in rice. ONAC023 positively regulates drought and heat tolerance at both seedling and reproductive stages. Notably, the functioning of ONAC023 is obliterated without stress treatment and can be triggered by drought and heat stresses at two layers. The expression of ONAC023 is induced in response to stress stimuli. We show that overexpressed ONAC23 is translocated to the nucleus under stress and evidence from protoplasts suggests that the dephosphorylation of the remorin protein OSREM1.5 can promote this translocation. Under drought or heat stress, the nuclear ONAC023 can target and promote the expression of diverse genes, such as OsPIP2;7 , PGL3 , OsFKBP20-1b , and OsSF3B1 , which are involved in various processes including water transport, reactive oxygen species homeostasis, and alternative splicing. These results manifest that ONAC023 is fine-tuned to positively regulate drought and heat tolerance through the integration of multiple stress-responsive processes. Our findings provide not only an underlying connection between drought and heat responses, but also a promising candidate for engineering multi-stress-resilient rice. The mechanism of rice adaptation to drought and heat is unclear. Here the authors report ONAC023 as a hub regulator of drought and heat tolerance, offering valuable insights into the multi-layered regulatory mechanisms in multi-stress responses.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 38/89 / 45/15 / 49/39 / 631/449/2661/2146 / 631/449/2661/2663 / 631/449/2661/2665 / 82/58 / 82/80 / Agricultural production / Alternative splicing / Cell Nucleus - metabolism / Crop production / Dephosphorylation / Drought / Droughts / Emission standards / Food supply / Gene expression / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Genes / Genomics / Heat stress / Heat tolerance / Heat treatment / Heat-Shock Response - genetics / Homeostasis / Humanities and Social Sciences / multidisciplinary / Multilayers / Nuclear transport / Oryza - genetics / Oryza - metabolism / Plant Proteins - genetics / Plant Proteins - metabolism / Plants, Genetically Modified / Protein transport / Protoplasts / Reactive oxygen species / Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism / Regulatory mechanisms (biology) / Rice / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Seedlings / Seedlings - genetics / Seedlings - metabolism / Stress, Physiological / Thermotolerance - genetics / Translocation / Water transport