Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
Volume 22, Issue 18, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/ijms22189899
Keywords
drought; abscisic acid; secondary cell walls; phytohormone; transcriptional regulation
Funding
- European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2012-2017) [FP7-311929]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2020M670179]
- International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Program (Talent-Introduction Program)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [32071730, 31770643]
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular Design (Beijing Forestry University)
- German Research Foundation [INST186/822-1]
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The study investigated the physiological, anatomical, hormonal, and transcriptional responses of poplar to drought stress, revealing significant changes in wood anatomy and hormone levels under drought conditions, leading to the regulation of gene expression related to cell wall biosynthesis and remodeling.
Drought is a severe environmental stress that exerts negative effects on plant growth. In trees, drought leads to reduced secondary growth and altered wood anatomy. The mechanisms underlying wood stress adaptation are not well understood. Here, we investigated the physiological, anatomical, hormonal, and transcriptional responses of poplar to strong drought. Drought-stressed xylem was characterized by higher vessel frequencies, smaller vessel lumina, and thicker secondary fiber cell walls. These changes were accompanied by strong increases in abscisic acid (ABA) and antagonistic changes in salicylic acid in wood. Transcriptional evidence supported ABA biosynthesis and signaling in wood. Since ABA signaling activates the fiber-thickening factor NST1, we expected upregulation of the secondary cell wall (SCW) cascade under stress. By contrast, transcription factors and biosynthesis genes for SCW formation were down-regulated, whereas a small set of cellulose synthase-like genes and a huge array of genes involved in cell wall modification were up-regulated in drought-stressed wood. Therefore, we suggest that ABA signaling monitors normal SCW biosynthesis and that drought causes a switch from normal to stress wood formation recruiting a dedicated set of genes for cell wall biosynthesis and remodeling. This proposition implies that drought-induced changes in cell wall properties underlie regulatory mechanisms distinct from those of normal wood.
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