Alleviation of Drought Stress by Hydrogen Sulfide Is Partially Related to the Abscisic Acid Signaling Pathway in Wheat

PLoS One. 2016 Sep 20;11(9):e0163082. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163082. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Little information is available describing the effects of exogenous H2S on the ABA pathway in the acquisition of drought tolerance in wheat. In this study, we investigated the physiological parameters, the transcription levels of several genes involved in the abscisic acid (ABA) metabolism pathway, and the ABA and H2S contents in wheat leaves and roots under drought stress in response to exogenous NaHS treatment. The results showed that pretreatment with NaHS significantly increased plant height and the leaf relative water content of seedlings under drought stress. Compared with drought stress treatment alone, H2S application increased antioxidant enzyme activities and reduced MDA and H2O2 contents in both leaves and roots. NaHS pretreatment increased the expression levels of ABA biosynthesis and ABA reactivation genes in leaves; whereas the expression levels of ABA biosynthesis and ABA catabolism genes were up-regulated in roots. These results indicated that ABA participates in drought tolerance induced by exogenous H2S, and that the responses in leaves and roots are different. The transcription levels of genes encoding ABA receptors were up-regulated in response to NaHS pretreatment under drought conditions in both leaves and roots. Correspondingly, the H2S contents in leaves and roots were increased by NaHS pretreatment, while the ABA contents of leaves and roots decreased. This implied that there is complex crosstalk between these two signal molecules, and that the alleviation of drought stress by H2S, at least in part, involves the ABA signaling pathway.

MeSH terms

  • Abscisic Acid / metabolism*
  • Abscisic Acid / pharmacology
  • Catalase / metabolism
  • Droughts*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / drug effects
  • Hydrogen Peroxide / metabolism
  • Hydrogen Sulfide / metabolism*
  • Hydrogen Sulfide / pharmacology
  • Malondialdehyde / metabolism
  • Peroxidase / metabolism
  • Plant Leaves / drug effects
  • Plant Leaves / genetics
  • Plant Leaves / metabolism
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism
  • Plant Roots / drug effects
  • Plant Roots / genetics
  • Plant Roots / metabolism
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Seedlings / drug effects
  • Seedlings / genetics
  • Seedlings / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction / drug effects
  • Stress, Physiological / drug effects
  • Sulfides / pharmacology
  • Superoxide Dismutase / metabolism
  • Triticum / drug effects
  • Triticum / genetics
  • Triticum / metabolism*

Substances

  • Plant Proteins
  • Sulfides
  • Malondialdehyde
  • Abscisic Acid
  • Hydrogen Peroxide
  • Catalase
  • Peroxidase
  • Superoxide Dismutase
  • sodium bisulfide
  • Hydrogen Sulfide

Grants and funding

This project was funded by the Science and Technology Support Program (2015BAD26B00), and the Key Scientific Research Project of Higher Education Insitution (15A210004).