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Promoter of Nitrate Reductase Gene Behaves Differently Under Salinity Stress in Contrasting Rice Genotype

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Abstract

Soil salinity is a global agricultural issue that decreases both plant production and survival. Plants synthesize secondary nitrogen metabolites, which use nitrogen fixed by plants, to withstand salinity stress. Soil salinity is a global agricultural problem that reduces the yield as well as survivability of plants. Plants fix nitrogen by nitrate reductase (NR) which converts nitrate (NO3−) to nitrite (NO2−). Salinity affects NR control differentially and shows both increased and decreased activity. This increase or decrease in activity was due to its control of transcriptional and post-translation (activation). We characterized the NR gene promoter from salt-sensitive and resistant CVS with an in vivo reporter gene (gusA) by raising transgenic rice plants. The major difference in their actions at different salt levels (100 mM, 200 mM, and 300 mM) is verified by qPCR and quantitative expression of gusA. We found a collinear association with previously reported NR activity outcomes between relative transcript number or reporter gene. In addition, sequence analysis of NR promoters reveals that the tolerant CVS promoter (pCNR3) contains a higher number of elements of GATA (cis-regulatory elements, CREs) that are directly responsible for the response to salinity stress. The hypothesis that the promoter of the NR gene has a significant function in the regulation of NR activity under salinity stress is confirmed by the existence of a higher number of salt-sensitive CREs. This study was designed by considering the contrasting salt-sensitive (Jaya and CSR36) cultivars to understand the function of the promoter (transcriptional regulation) (CVS). In addition, this information leads to a stress-responsive promoter of endogenous salinity that can be further used in programs for research and crop improvement.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to Dr. Nishat Passricha, ICGEB, New Delhi, Prof. Pushpa Kharb and Dr. Rakshita, CCS-HAU, Hisar, Mr. Shivkant sharma, MDU, Rohtak for help in conducting experiments.

Funding

This research work is financially supported by a fellowship grant from University Grant Commission-Basic Scientific Research (UGC BSR) [F.25–1/2013–14 (BSR)/7–371/ 2012] to Ms. Pooja Rohilla & University Grant Commission- Special Assistance Program (UGC-SAP) [F.20/2012(SAP-II)] grant from UGC, New Delhi.

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  1. Department of Genetics, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, 124001, Haryana, India

    Pooja Rohilla & Jaya Parkash Yadav

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  1. Pooja Rohilla
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  2. Jaya Parkash Yadav
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RP has contributed to the idea and designed the experiments. YJP is a mentor and edits the manuscript. All the authors thoroughly read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jaya Parkash Yadav.

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344_2022_10896_MOESM1_ESM.jpg

Supplementary file1 (JPG 75 kb)—Homozygous line identification in transgenic plants: Line3, Line9, Line17 in salt-tolerant promoter cvs (a,b,c) and Line14, Line21, Line24 in salt sensitive promoter cvs (d,e,f). (Here, Line3.10, Line9.1, Line9.8, Line17.2, Line17.3, Line14.2, Line14.7, Line21.9 and Line24.7 represent the homozygous line in a-f.

Supplementary file2 (JPG 183 kb)—Sequence alignment of both salt responsive rice CVS promoter, i.e. Jaya and CSR36.

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Rohilla, P., Yadav, J.P. Promoter of Nitrate Reductase Gene Behaves Differently Under Salinity Stress in Contrasting Rice Genotype. J Plant Growth Regul 42, 4339–4349 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10896-8

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