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Acta Agronomica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (11): 3007-3016.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1006.2023.34015

• CROP GENETICS & BREEDING·GERMPLASM RESOURCES·MOLECULAR GENETICS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

StvacINV1 negatively regulates drought tolerance in potato

GONG Hui-Ling1,*(), LIN Hong-Xia1, REN Xiao-Li1, LI Tong1, WANG Chen-Xia1, BAI Jiang-Ping2,3   

  1. 1School of Life Sciences and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050, Gansu, China
    2Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science / Gansu Key Laboratory of Crop Improvement and Germplasm Enhancement, Lanzhou 730070, Gansu, China
    3College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, Gansu, China
  • Received:2023-01-18 Accepted:2023-04-17 Online:2023-11-12 Published:2023-05-05
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(31860397);National Natural Science Foundation of China(31360296);Open Project of the State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas(CSBAAKF2018006);Key Program of Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province(22JR5RA228)

Abstract:

Plant vacuolar acid invertase catalyses irreversible hydrolysis of sucrose into glucose and fructose, which plays a vital role in plant growth, development, and abiotic stress adaption. The vacuolar acid invertase gene StvacINV1 in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) are involved in regulating cold-induced sweetening in tubers, however the physiological role of StvacINV1 during adaptation to drought stress conditions is not yet fully understood. To investigate the mechanism of StvacINV1 regulating drought toleration under natural drought stress (water was withheld), this experiment was conducted with potato cultivars ‘Atlantic’, ‘Russet Burbank’, and their StvacINV1-RNAi transgenic lines. The results showed that drought stress strongly reduced mRNA abundance of StvacINV1 and vacuolar acid invertase activity in the leaves of the wild-type plants and StvacINV1-RNAi transgenic lines. Compared with the wild type, the transgenic lines with high interference efficiency of StvacINV1-RNAi were less prone to slower wilting, lower water loss, lower MDA content, and higher relative water content in leaves under drought stress, which indicated that the transgenic strains with high interference efficiency of StvacINV1 had higher drought tolerance than wild type. StvaclNV1 regulated negatively drought tolerance of potao. Further analysis showed that under drought stress, stomatal aperture and stomatal conductance in highly interfered StvacINV1-RNAi transgenic lines were significantly lower than wild type, whereas water use efficiency was significantly higher, which demonstrated StvacINV1 might regulate the drought tolerance of potato plants by stomatal movement. Sucrose content in highly interfered StvacINV1-RNAi transgenic lines was significantly higher than wild type under drought stress, meanwhile the exogenous high concentration sucrose treatment can induce stomatal closure, which led us to speculate that StvacINV1 was involved in regulating stomatal closure through its catalytic substrate sucrose. Compared with wild type, StvacINV1-RNAi transgenic lines were more sensitive during ABA-induced stomatal closure. In conclusion, StvacINV1 negatively regulated the drought tolerance by stomatal closure in potato plants, and StvacINV1 may be involved in regulating stomatal closure through its catalytic substrate sucrose, and StvacINV1 was involved in ABA-induced stomatal closure. This study provides a theoretical basis for breeding potato varieties resistant to both sweetening (tubers) and drought stress.

Key words: potato, vacuolar acid invertase, drought tolerance, stomatal closure

Table 1

Primer sequences used in the study"

基因名称
Gene name
正向引物
Forward primer (5°-3°)
反向引物
Reverse primer (5°-3°)
ef1-α CAAGGATGACCCAGCCAAG TTCCTTACCTGAACGCCTGT
StvacINV1 GGTACGATATTAACGGTGTCTGG AGAAGGAGAGGATCAGATAAG

Fig. 1

StvacINV1 relative expression level (A) and vacuolar acid invertase (VIN) activity (B) in the WT and StvacINV1 RNA interference lines under normal or drought conditions"

Fig. 2

Plant morphology (A), relative water content (B), MDA content (C), fresh weight loss (D and E) of leaves in the WT and StvacINV1 RNA interference lines under normal or drought conditions"

Fig. 3

Stomatal aperture (A), stomatal conductance (B), and water use efficiency (WUE) (C) of leaves in the WT and StvacINV1 RNA interference lines under normal or drought conditions"

Fig. 4

Sucrose content of leaves in the WT and StvacINV1 RNA plants under normal or drought conditions"

Fig. 5

Effect of sucrose treatments on potato stomatal apearture"

Fig. 6

Effect of ABA treatments on potato stomatal aperture"

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