A Lily ASR protein involves abscisic acid signaling and confers drought and salt resistance in Arabi.pdfVIP

A Lily ASR Protein Involves Abscisic Acid Signaling and Confers Drought and Salt Resistance in Arabidopsis1[w] Chin-Ying Yang, Yu-Chuan Chen, Guang Yuh Jauh, and Co-Shine Wang* Graduate Institute of Biotechnology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan 40227 (C.-Y.Y., Y.-C.C., C.-S.W.); and Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 11529 (G.Y.J.) LLA23, an abscisic acid-, stress-, and ripening-induced protein, was previously isolated from lily (Lilium longiflorum) pollen. The expression of LLA23 is induced under the application of abscisic acid (ABA), NaCl, or dehydration. To provide evidence on the biological role of LLA23 proteins against drought, we used an overexpression approach in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Constitutive overexpression of LLA23 under the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter confers reduced sensitivity to ABA in Arabidopsis seeds and, consequently, a reduced degree of seed dormancy. Transgenic 35STLLA23 seeds are able to germinate under unfavorable conditions, such as inhibitory concentrations of mannitol and NaCl. At the molecular level, altered expression of ABA/stress-regulated genes was observed. Thus, our results provide strong in vivo evidence that LLA23 mediates stress-responsive ABA signaling. In vegetative tissues, it is intriguing that Arabidopsis 35STLLA23 stomata remain opened upon drought, while transgenic plants have a decreased rate of water loss and exhibit enhanced drought and salt resistance. A dual function of the lily abscisic acid-, stress-, and ripening-induced protein molecule is discussed. Abscisic acid (ABA) plays important regulatory roles in various aspects of plant growth and develop- ment throughout the plant life cycle, particularly in the ability to sense and respond to various unfavorable environmental stresses, including drought, salt, and cold stresses during vegetative growth (Leung and Giraudat, 1998; Finkelstein et al., 2002). In vegetative tissues, ABA mediates adaptive respon