The Molecular Mechanism Of Abiotic Stresses Induce The Expression Of AtGSTF14 Gene

Abiotic stresses mainly include drought,low temperature and salt stress,which seriously affect the growth and development of plants.Previous studies had shown that glutathione S-transferases(GSTs)can respond to pathogen infection,osmotic stress and extreme temperatures,and enhance plant stress resistance.AtGSTF14 is a member of the glutathione S-transferase(GSTs)supergene family,and its gene promoter region contains highly methylated repeats.Biotic stress and abiotic stress can induce AtGSTF14 gene expression.However,the molecular mechanism that AtGSTF14 gene expression induced by abiotic stress is unclear.In this study,wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana(Col-0)and drought-,salt-,and low-temperature(4?)-treated Arabidopsis thaliana used as plant materials,we used semi-quantitative RT-PCR(sq RT-PCR)to detect and analyze whether abiotic stresses induce AtGSTF14 gene expression.The quantitative PCR(q PCR)results showed that the expression of AtGSTF14 gene was significantly increased in the Arabidopsis plants treated with drought,salt and low temperature(4?),the untreated Col-0 plants served as controls.The quantitative PCR(q PCR)results further confirmed that the expression of AtGSTF14 gene was significantly upregulated in Arabidopsis treated with drought,salt and low temperature(4?).We comparatively analyzed the differences in DNA methylation within the promoter of AtGSTF14 gene in wild-type Arabidopsis(Col-0)and the treated Arabidopsis thaliana by bisulfite sequencing.The data analyses demonstrated that the DNA methylation of dispersed repeats(DRs)within the promoter regions of AtGSTF14 gene was decreased in the Arabidopsis treated with drought,salt,and low temperature(4?),compared with the untreated wild-type Arabidopsis Col-0 plants.These results revealed that abiotic stresses can induce DNA demethylation in the promoter of AtGSTF14 gene and transcriptionally activate the expression of the AtGSTF14 gene.Further research showed that the expression levels of AtGSTF14 gene were clearly increased in the DNA methylase mutant plants drm1/2,met1,and the RNA-mediated DNA methylation(RdDM)key component mutant plants ago4 and dcl3,revealing that the RdDM pathway plays an important role in the process of AtGSTF14 gene in response to abiotic stresses.This study revealed the molecular mechanism that abiotic stresses induced the expression of AtGSTF14 gene,providing a research foundation for the study on the molecular mechanism of stress resistance-related genes in response to abiotic stresses.