Genome-wide identification, characterization, and expression analysis of tea plant autophagy-related genes (CsARGs) demonstrates that they play diverse roles during development and under abiotic stress

Systematic analysis and expression of Gossypium ATG8 family reveals the roles of GhATG8f responding to salt stress in cotton

KEY MESSAGE

Comprehensive analysis of Gossypium ATG8 family indicates that GhATG8f could improve salt tolerance of cotton by increasing SOD, POD and CAT activity and proline accumulation. In plants, autophagy is regulated by several genes that play important roles in initiating and controlling the process. ATG8, functioning as a protein similar to ubiquitin, is involved in crucial tasks throughout the autophagosome formation process. In this research, we conducted an extensive and all-encompassing investigation of 64 ATG8 genes across four varieties of cotton. According to the subcellular localization prediction results, 49 genes were found in the cytoplasm, 6 genes in the chloroplast, 1 gene in the peroxisome, 5 genes in the nucleus, and 3 genes in the extracellular region. Phylogenetic analysis categorized a total of 5 subfamilies containing sixty-four ATG8 genes. The expression of the majority of GhATG8 genes was induced by salt, drought, cold, and heat stresses, as revealed by RNA-seq and real-time PCR. Analysis of cis-elements in the promoters of GhATG8 genes revealed the predominant presence of responsive elements for plant hormones and abiotic stress, suggesting that GhATG8 genes might have significant functions in abiotic stress response. Furthermore, we additionally performed a gene interaction network analysis for the GhATG8 proteins. The salt stress resistance of cotton was reduced due to the downregulation of GhATG8f expression, resulting in decreased activity of CAT, SOD, and POD enzymes, as well as decreased fresh weight and proline accumulation. In summary, our research is the initial exploration of ATG8 gene components in cotton, providing a basis for future investigations into the regulatory mechanisms of ATG8 genes in autophagy and their response to abiotic stress.

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of Rosa roxburghii Autophagy-Related Genes in Response to Top-Rot Disease

Autophagy is a highly conserved process in eukaryotes that degrades and recycles damaged cells in plants and is involved in plant growth, development, senescence, and resistance to external stress. Top-rot disease (TRD) in Rosa roxburghii fruits caused by Colletotrichum fructicola often leads to huge yield losses. However, little information is available about the autophagy underlying the defense response to TRD. Here, we identified a total of 40 R. roxburghii autophagy-related genes (RrATGs), which were highly homologous to Arabidopsis thaliana ATGs. Transcriptomic data show that RrATGs were involved in the development and ripening processes of R. roxburghii fruits. Gene expression patterns in fruits with different degrees of TRD occurrence suggest that several members of the RrATGs family responded to TRD, of which RrATG18e was significantly up-regulated at the initial infection stage of C. fructicola. Furthermore, exogenous calcium (Ca2+) significantly promoted the mRNA accumulation of RrATG18e and fruit resistance to TRD, suggesting that this gene might be involved in the calcium-mediated TRD defense response. This study provided a better understanding of R. roxburghii autophagy-related genes and their potential roles in disease resistance.

Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the calmodulin-binding transcription activator (CAMTA) family genes in tea plant

Background

As a type of calmodulin binding protein, CAMTAs are widely involved in vegetative and reproductive processes as well as various hormonal and stress responses in plants. To study the functions of CAMTA genes in tea plants, we investigated bioinformatics analysis and performed qRT-PCR analysis of the CAMTA gene family by using the genomes of ‘ShuChaZao’ tea plant cultivar.

Results

In this study, 6 CsCAMTAs were identified from tea plant genome. Bioinformatics analysis results showed that all CsCAMTAs contained six highly conserved functional domains. Tissue-specific analysis results found that CsCAMTAs played great roles in mediating tea plant aging and flowering periods. Under hormone and abiotic stress conditions, most CsCAMTAs were upregulated at different time points under different treatment conditions. In addition, the expression levels of CsCAMTA1/3/4/6 were higher in cold-resistant cultivar ‘LongJing43’ than in the cold-susceptible cultivar ‘DaMianBai’ at cold acclimation stage, while CsCAMTA2/5 showed higher expression levels in ‘DaMianBai’ than in ‘LongJing43’ during entire cold acclimation periods.

Conclusions

In brief, the present results revealed that CsCAMTAs played great roles in tea plant growth, development and stress responses, which laid the foundation for deeply exploring their molecular regulation mechanisms.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-022-08894-x.

CsATG101 Delays Growth and Accelerates Senescence Response to Low Nitrogen Stress in Arabidopsis thaliana

For tea plants, nitrogen (N) is a foundational element and large quantities of N are required during periods of roundly vigorous growth. However, the fluctuation of N in the tea garden could not always meet the dynamic demand of the tea plants. Autophagy, an intracellular degradation process for materials recycling in eukaryotes, plays an important role in nutrient remobilization upon stressful conditions and leaf senescence. Studies have proven that numerous autophagy-related genes (ATGs) are involved in N utilization efficiency in Arabidopsis thaliana and other species. Here, we identified an ATG gene, CsATG101, and characterized the potential functions in response to N in A. thaliana. The expression patterns of CsATG101 in four categories of aging gradient leaves among 24 tea cultivars indicated that autophagy mainly occurred in mature leaves at a relatively high level. Further, the in planta heterologous expression of CsATG101 in A. thaliana was employed to investigate the response of CsATG101 to low N stress. The results illustrated a delayed transition from vegetative to reproductive growth under normal N conditions, while premature senescence under N deficient conditions in transgenic plants vs. the wild type. The expression profiles of 12 AtATGs confirmed the autophagy process, especially in mature leaves of transgenic plants. Also, the relatively high expression levels for AtAAP1, AtLHT1, AtGLN1;1, and AtNIA1 in mature leaves illustrated that the mature leaves act as the source leaves in transgenic plants. Altogether, the findings demonstrated that CsATG101 is a candidate gene for improving annual fresh tea leaves yield under both deficient and sufficient N conditions via the autophagy process.

The emerging roles of ATG1/ATG13 kinase complex in plants

Autophagy is a conserved system from yeast to mammals that mediates the degradation and renovation of cellular components. This process is mainly driven by numerous autophagy-related (ATG) proteins. Among these components, the ATG1/ATG13 complex plays an essential role in initiating autophagy, sensing nutritional status signals, recruiting downstream ATG proteins to the autophagosome formation site, and governing autophagosome formation. In this review, we will focus on the ATG1/ATG13 kinase complex, summarizing and discussing the current views on the composition, structure, function, and regulation of this complex in plants.

Genome-Wide Identification of the PMEI Gene Family in Tea Plant and Functional Analysis of CsPMEI2 and CsPMEI4 Through Ectopic Overexpression

Pectin methylesterase inhibitor (PMEI) inhibits pectin methylesterase (PME) activity at post-translation level, which plays core roles in vegetative and reproductive processes and various stress responses of plants. However, the roles of PMEIs in tea plant are still undiscovered. Herein, a total of 51 CsPMEIs genes were identified from tea plant genome. CsPMEI1-4 transcripts were varied in different tea plant tissues and regulated by various treatments, including biotic and abiotic stresses, sugar treatments, cold acclimation and bud dormancy. Overexpression of CsPMEI4 slightly decreased cold tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis associated with lower electrolyte leakage, soluble sugars contents and transcripts of many cold-induced genes as compared to wild type plants. Under long-day and short-day conditions, CsPMEI2/4 promoted early flowering phenotypes in transgenic Arabidopsis along with higher expression levels of many flowering-related genes. Moreover, overexpression of CsPMEI2/4 decreased PME activity, but increased sugars contents (sucrose, glucose, and fructose) in transgenic Arabidopsis as compared with wild type plants under short-day condition. These results indicate that CsPMEIs are widely involved in tea plant vegetative and reproductive processes, and also in various stress responses. Moreover, CsPMEI4 negatively regulated cold response, meanwhile, CsPMEI2/4 promoted early flowering of transgenic Arabidopsis via the autonomous pathway. Collectively, these results open new perspectives on the roles of PMEIs in tea plant.

Autophagy in Plant Abiotic Stress Management

Plants can be considered an open system. Throughout their life cycle, plants need to exchange material, energy and information with the outside world. To improve their survival and complete their life cycle, plants have developed sophisticated mechanisms to maintain cellular homeostasis during development and in response to environmental changes. Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved self-degradative process that occurs ubiquitously in all eukaryotic cells and plays many physiological roles in maintaining cellular homeostasis. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have shown that autophagy can be induced not only by starvation but also as a cellular response to various abiotic stresses, including oxidative, salt, drought, cold and heat stresses. This review focuses mainly on the role of autophagy in plant abiotic stress management.