Abstract
Heat stress is a major restrictive factor that suppresses rice production. In this study, we investigated the potential priming effect of exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) on heat tolerance in rice seedlings. Seedlings were pretreated with 10 µM ABA by root-drenched for 24 h and then subjected to heat stress conditions of 40 °C day/35 °C night. ABA pretreatment significantly decreased leaf withering by 2.5–28.5% and chlorophyll loss by 12.8–35.1% induced by heat stress in rice seedlings. ABA pretreatment also mitigated cell injury, as shown by lower malondialdehyde content, relative electrolytic conductivity, and expression of cell death-related genes OsKOD1, OsCP1, and OsNAC4, while expression of OsBI1, a cell death-suppressor gene, was upregulated by ABA pretreatment. Moreover, ABA pretreatment improved antioxidant defense capacity, as shown by an obvious upregulation of ROS-scavenging genes and a decrease in ROS content (O2− and H2O2), and downregulation of the OsRbohs genes. Application of fluridone, an ABA biosynthesis inhibitor, increased membrane injury and the accumulation of ROS under heat stress. Exogenous antioxidants (proanthocyanidins) significantly alleviated leaf withering by decreasing ROS overaccumulation and membrane injury induced by heat stress. In addition, ABA pretreatment significantly superinduced the expression of ABA-responsive genes SalT and OsWsi18, the ABA biosynthesis genes OsNCED3 and OsNCED4, and the heat shock-related genes OsHSP23.7, OsHSP17.7, OsHSF7, and OsHsfA2a. Taken together, these results suggest that exogenous ABA has a potential priming effect for enhancing heat stress tolerance of rice seedlings mainly by improving antioxidant defense capacity and heat shock-related genes.
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Abbreviations
- ABA:
-
Abscisic acid
- H2O2 :
-
Hydrogen peroxide
- HS:
-
Heat stress
- HSP:
-
Heat-shock proteins
- HSF:
-
Heat-shock factor
- MDA:
-
Malondialdehyde
- MI:
-
Membrane injury
- O2 − :
-
Superoxide anions
- PC:
-
Proanthocyanidins
- qRT-PCR:
-
Quantitative real-time PCR
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- RBOH:
-
Respiratory Burst Oxidase Homolog
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the Science and Technology Project of Education Department of Jiangxi Province (Project No. GJJ190868); the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Project No. 20202BABL213046); the Doctoral Scientific Research Fund of Yichun University (Project No. 210-3360119017) for their financial support.
Funding
This study is supported by the Science and Technology Project of Education Department of Jiangxi Province (Project Number: GJJ190868), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Project Number: 20202BABL213046), and the Doctoral Scientific Research Fund of Yichun University (Project Number: 210-3360119017) for their financial support. All these projects aforementioned were managed by the corresponding author in this study.