The Regulation Of Serotonin Biosynthesis Under Abiotic Stresses

As the staple food for more than half of the population in the world, research on rice secondary metabolism is of great biological significance and great importance for practice guiding. Abiotic stresses, especially cold, salinity and drought, are the primary causes of crop loss worldwide. Plant adaptation to environmental stresses is dependent upon the activation of cascades of molecular networks involved in stress perception, signal transduction, and the expression of specific stress-related genes and metabolites. As a well-known neurotransmitter in mammals and humans, serotonin is little known about the regulatory mechanism of its biosynthesis and metabolism in plants.In the present study, we screened two positive transcription factors (ie. WRKY70and MYB15) for their direct involvements in the biosynthesis of serotonin through several experimental evidence. Firstly, the key genes TDC1and T5H for serotonin biosynthesis were induced by various abiotic stresses, such as drought, salt, cold, and UV irradiation. At the meantime, the accumulation of serotonin and its derivatives, such as Coumaroylserotonin (CS) and Feruloylserotonin (FS) were also detected under these stresses. Yeast one-hybrid result further confirmed the two positive TFs in regulating serotonin biosynthesis. These evidence further indicate that serotonin exert important function in combating environmental adversities in plants. But on the other hand, we need more experiments to parse the precise molecular mechanism of serotonin’s function in plants.