Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2024, Vol. 59 ›› Issue (4): 558-573.DOI: 10.11983/CBB23129  cstr: 32102.14.CBB23129

• EXPERIMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Investigation of the Regulation of Drought Tolerance by the SlHVA22l Gene in Tomato

Laipeng Zhao1,2, Baike Wang2, Tao Yang2, Ning Li2, Haitao Yang2, Juan Wang2,*(), Huizhuan Yan1,*()   

  1. 1College of Horticulture, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi 830052, China
    2Key Laboratory of Horticulture Crop Genomics Research and Genetic Improvement in Xinjiang, Institute of Horticultural Crops, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, China
  • Received:2023-09-15 Accepted:2023-12-19 Online:2024-07-10 Published:2024-07-10
  • Contact: *E-mail: drjuanwang@126.com; hzhyan1118@163.com

Abstract: Plants inevitably face a multitude of abiotic stresses during their growth and development stages. Drought stress significantly hampers crop growth and reduces yield. The plant HVA22 protein is characterized by the TB2/DP1 structural domain and is implicated in the modulation of plant growth, development, and responses to abiotic stress. However, its precise function in the context of drought stress response in tomato remains to be elucidated. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the functional role of the tomato SlHVA22l gene in drought tolerance. The results showed that the amino acid sequence of SlHVA22l exhibits a higher degree of sequence similarity to that of homologous HVA22l proteins found in other dicotyledonous plants. Furthermore, the expression pattern analysis revealed a significant upregulation of the SlHVA22l gene in response to drought stress and phytohormones (ABA and MeJA). Moreover, the function of the SlHVA22l gene in drought tolerance was subsequently verified by yeast heterologous expression and silencing of the endogenous SlHVA22l gene in tomato via virus-induced gene silencing. The silenced plants exhibited higher H2O2 and malondialdehyde contents, as well as lower O2-. scavenging after drought treatment. Moreover, the activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase were significantly decreased in the silenced plants compared to those in the control plants. Collectively, these results indicate that the SlHVA22l gene plays an important role in tomato resistance to drought stress.

Key words: tomato, SlHVA22l, drought stress, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS), gene expression