ABA-mediated Transcriptional Regulation in Response to Osmotic Stress in Plants

Overview

Journal J Plant Res

Specialty Biology

Date 2011 Mar 19

PMID 21416314

Citations 405

Authors

Yasunari Fujita

Miki Fujita

Kazuo Shinozaki

Kazuko Yamaguchi-Shinozaki

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a pivotal role in a variety of developmental processes and adaptive stress responses to environmental stimuli in plants. Cellular dehydration during the seed maturation and vegetative growth stages induces an increase in endogenous ABA levels, which control many dehydration-responsive genes. In Arabidopsis plants, ABA regulates nearly 10% of the protein-coding genes, a much higher percentage than other plant hormones. Expression of the genes is mainly regulated by two different families of bZIP transcription factors (TFs), ABI5 in the seeds and AREB/ABFs in the vegetative stage, in an ABA-responsive-element (ABRE) dependent manner. The SnRK2-AREB/ABF pathway governs the majority of ABA-mediated ABRE-dependent gene expression in response to osmotic stress during the vegetative stage. In addition to osmotic stress, the circadian clock and light conditions also appear to participate in the regulation of ABA-mediated gene expression, likely conferring versatile tolerance and repressing growth under stress conditions. Moreover, various other TFs belonging to several classes, including AP2/ERF, MYB, NAC, and HD-ZF, have been reported to engage in ABA-mediated gene expression. This review mainly focuses on the transcriptional regulation of ABA-mediated gene expression in response to osmotic stress during the vegetative growth stage in Arabidopsis.

Citing Articles

Dynamic molecular regulation of salt stress responses in maize ( L.) seedlings.

Maimaiti A, Gu W, Yu D, Guan Y, Qu J, Qin T Front Plant Sci. 2025; 16:1535943.

PMID: 40070712 PMC: 11893837. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1535943.

Unraveling key genes and pathways involved in Verticillium wilt resistance by integrative GWAS and transcriptomic approaches in Upland cotton.

Khan M, Hu D, Dai S, Li H, Peng Z, He S Funct Integr Genomics. 2025; 25(1):39.

PMID: 39955705 DOI: 10.1007/s10142-025-01539-8.

Crosstalk Between Abiotic and Biotic Stresses Responses and the Role of Chloroplast Retrograde Signaling in the Cross-Tolerance Phenomena in Plants.

Kamran M, Burdiak P, Karpinski S Cells. 2025; 14(3).

PMID: 39936968 PMC: 11817488. DOI: 10.3390/cells14030176.

Dressed Up to the Nines: The Interplay of Phytohormones Signaling and Redox Metabolism During Plant Response to Drought.

Jardim-Messeder D, de Souza-Vieira Y, Sachetto-Martins G Plants (Basel). 2025; 14(2).

PMID: 39861561 PMC: 11768152. DOI: 10.3390/plants14020208.

Impact of Water Stress on Metabolic Intermediates and Regulators in Broccoli Sprouts, and Cellular Defense Potential of Their Extracts.

Sola I, Gmizic D, Miskec K, Ludwig-Muller J Int J Mol Sci. 2025; 26(2).

PMID: 39859346 PMC: 11765553. DOI: 10.3390/ijms26020632.

References

Hanano S, Domagalska M, Nagy F, Davis S . Multiple phytohormones influence distinct parameters of the plant circadian clock. Genes Cells. 2006; 11(12):1381-92. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2443.2006.01026.x. View

Lee J, Yoon H, Terzaghi W, Martinez C, Dai M, Li J . DWA1 and DWA2, two Arabidopsis DWD protein components of CUL4-based E3 ligases, act together as negative regulators in ABA signal transduction. Plant Cell. 2010; 22(6):1716-32. PMC: 2910972. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.109.073783. View

Li W, Oono Y, Zhu J, He X, Wu J, Iida K . The Arabidopsis NFYA5 transcription factor is regulated transcriptionally and posttranscriptionally to promote drought resistance. Plant Cell. 2008; 20(8):2238-51. PMC: 2553615. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.108.059444. View

Seo P, Xiang F, Qiao M, Park J, Lee Y, Kim S . The MYB96 transcription factor mediates abscisic acid signaling during drought stress response in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 2009; 151(1):275-89. PMC: 2735973. DOI: 10.1104/pp.109.144220. View

Denekamp M, Smeekens S . Integration of wounding and osmotic stress signals determines the expression of the AtMYB102 transcription factor gene. Plant Physiol. 2003; 132(3):1415-23. PMC: 167081. DOI: 10.1104/pp.102.019273. View

Stracke R, WERBER M, Weisshaar B . The R2R3-MYB gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana. Curr Opin Plant Biol. 2001; 4(5):447-56. DOI: 10.1016/s1369-5266(00)00199-0. View

Bu Q, Jiang H, Li C, Zhai Q, Zhang J, Wu X . Role of the Arabidopsis thaliana NAC transcription factors ANAC019 and ANAC055 in regulating jasmonic acid-signaled defense responses. Cell Res. 2008; 18(7):756-67. DOI: 10.1038/cr.2008.53. View

Fujita Y, Fujita M, Satoh R, Maruyama K, Parvez M, Seki M . AREB1 is a transcription activator of novel ABRE-dependent ABA signaling that enhances drought stress tolerance in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. 2005; 17(12):3470-88. PMC: 1315382. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.105.035659. View

Zhu S, Yu X, Wang X, Zhao R, Li Y, Fan R . Two calcium-dependent protein kinases, CPK4 and CPK11, regulate abscisic acid signal transduction in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. 2007; 19(10):3019-36. PMC: 2174700. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.107.050666. View

10.

Menkens A, Schindler U, Cashmore A . The G-box: a ubiquitous regulatory DNA element in plants bound by the GBF family of bZIP proteins. Trends Biochem Sci. 1995; 20(12):506-10. DOI: 10.1016/s0968-0004(00)89118-5. View

11.

Matsui A, Ishida J, Morosawa T, Mochizuki Y, Kaminuma E, Endo T . Arabidopsis transcriptome analysis under drought, cold, high-salinity and ABA treatment conditions using a tiling array. Plant Cell Physiol. 2008; 49(8):1135-49. DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcn101. View

12.

Dombrecht B, Xue G, Sprague S, Kirkegaard J, Ross J, Reid J . MYC2 differentially modulates diverse jasmonate-dependent functions in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. 2007; 19(7):2225-45. PMC: 1955694. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.106.048017. View

13.

Agarwal P, Agarwal P, Reddy M, Sopory S . Role of DREB transcription factors in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in plants. Plant Cell Rep. 2006; 25(12):1263-74. DOI: 10.1007/s00299-006-0204-8. View

14.

Jung C, Lyou S, Yeu S, Kim M, Rhee S, Kim M . Microarray-based screening of jasmonate-responsive genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell Rep. 2007; 26(7):1053-63. DOI: 10.1007/s00299-007-0311-1. View

15.

Cutler S, Rodriguez P, Finkelstein R, Abrams S . Abscisic acid: emergence of a core signaling network. Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2010; 61:651-79. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-042809-112122. View

16.

Gomez-Porras J, Riano-Pachon D, Dreyer I, Mayer J, Mueller-Roeber B . Genome-wide analysis of ABA-responsive elements ABRE and CE3 reveals divergent patterns in Arabidopsis and rice. BMC Genomics. 2007; 8:260. PMC: 2000901. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-8-260. View

17.

Zeller G, Henz S, Widmer C, Sachsenberg T, Ratsch G, Weigel D . Stress-induced changes in the Arabidopsis thaliana transcriptome analyzed using whole-genome tiling arrays. Plant J. 2009; 58(6):1068-82. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2009.03835.x. View

18.

Ascenzi R, Gantt J . A drought-stress-inducible histone gene in Arabidopsis thaliana is a member of a distinct class of plant linker histone variants. Plant Mol Biol. 1997; 34(4):629-41. DOI: 10.1023/a:1005886011722. View

19.

de Pater S, Pham K, Memelink J, Kijne J . RAP-1 is an Arabidopsis MYC-like R protein homologue, that binds to G-box sequence motifs. Plant Mol Biol. 1997; 34(1):169-74. DOI: 10.1023/a:1005898823105. View

20.

Fowler S, Thomashow M . Arabidopsis transcriptome profiling indicates that multiple regulatory pathways are activated during cold acclimation in addition to the CBF cold response pathway. Plant Cell. 2002; 14(8):1675-90. PMC: 151458. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.003483. View