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Diverse roles of tocopherols in response to abiotic and biotic stresses and strategies for genetic biofortification in plants

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Abstract

Tocopherols are a group of lipid-soluble compounds and they are essential for human nutrition. Tocopherols are also well known as powerful antioxidants associated with ascorbate and glutathione, which protect plants from oxygen toxicity. However, an increasing amount of research suggests that tocopherols play roles in stress resistance far beyond their antioxidative activity. This work focuses on the tocopherol biosynthetic pathway, the activities of their different forms, and their roles in response to abiotic and biotic stresses. Here, we made an overview of three major tocopherol-related retrograde signaling pathways which were mediated by plant hormones, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and microRNAs (miRNAs), respectively. Furthermore, the available information on the progress of genetic engineering of tocopherol in plants was summarized. Finally, we identified questions that need to be addressed and discussed the prospective methods for tocopherol biofortification in plants. This review highlights the multifaceted role of tocopherols, which will facilitate further elucidating the functions of genes and direction of crop breeding.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ms. **angning Liu (Research School of Biology, The Australian National University) for critical reading and constructive suggestions.

Funding

This work was supported by the grants from Earmarked Fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS34), National Crop Germplasm Resources Center (NICGR-78), National Program for Forage germplasm Conservation (2130135), and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP-IAS10).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Bei**g, 100193, China

    Jiangtao Ma, Yongzhen Pang, Hongwen Gao, Xuemin Wang & Yuchang Qin

  2. Division of biomedical science and biochemistry, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia

    Deyun Qiu

Authors
  1. Jiangtao Ma
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  2. Deyun Qiu
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  3. Yongzhen Pang
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  4. Hongwen Gao
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  5. Xuemin Wang
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  6. Yuchang Qin
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Contributions

JM and YQ conceived, wrote, and organized the contents of the manuscript. HG and XW retrieved and analyzed promoter sequences and prepared the figures. XW, DQ, and YP revised the manuscript critically.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xuemin Wang or Yuchang Qin.

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Ma, J., Qiu, D., Pang, Y. et al. Diverse roles of tocopherols in response to abiotic and biotic stresses and strategies for genetic biofortification in plants. Mol Breeding 40, 18 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-019-1097-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-019-1097-x

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