Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2021, Vol. 56 ›› Issue (3): 296-314.DOI: 10.11983/CBB20168

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Mechanism on Drought Tolerance Enhanced by Exogenous Trehalose in C4-PEPC Rice

Jiaxin Li1,2, Xia Li1,2,3,*(), Yinfeng Xie1   

  1. 1College of Biology and Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
    2Nanjing Branch of China National Center for Rice Improvement/Jiangsu High Quality Rice Engineering Technology Research Center/Institute of Food Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
    3Collaborative Innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops of Jiangsu Province, Agricultural College, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
  • Received:2020-10-12 Accepted:2021-04-22 Online:2021-05-01 Published:2021-04-30
  • Contact: Xia Li

Abstract: In order to reveal the mechanism of trehalose (Tre) involved in the drought tolerance of transgenic rice (Oryza sativa) (PC) expressing the C4-PEPC gene of maize (Zea mays), we analyzed the physiological and biochemistry characteristics of PC and wild-type rice (WT) treated hydroponically with Tre and 12% (m/v) PEG alone or in combination. The results showed that Tre treatment promoted the growth of PC and WT seedlings, and alleviated the inhibition of plant growth caused by drought stress (DS), with the effect being more significant for PC. Compared with DS treatment, Tre+DS treatment maintained functional leaves a higher relative water content, photochemical efficiency and antioxidant enzyme activity. Under DS, compared with WT, PC showed significant increase in the content of Tre and sucrose and decrease in the content of glucose, and up-regulated expression of genes associated with Tre metabolism and SnRK1s after Tre application. Tre application also improved PC the ABA synthesis, and expression of genes related to signal transduction and drought response, and maintained PC a relatively stable photosynthetic capacity, thus possibly conferring stronger drought tolerance of PC.

Key words: C4-type PEPC transgenic rice, drought stress, phosphate phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, trehalose, rice (Oryza sativa)