Plant roots exhibit remarkable developmental plasticity in response to local soil conditions. It is shown here that mild salt stress stimulates a stress-induced morphogenic response (SIMR) in Arabidopsis thaliana roots characteristic of several other abiotic stresses: the proliferation of lateral roots (LRs) with a concomitant reduction in LR and primary root length. The LR proliferation component of the salt SIMR is dramatically enhanced by the transfer of seedlings from a low to a high NO₃⁻ medium, thereby compensating for the decreased LR length and maintaining overall LR surface area. Increased LR proliferation is specific to salt stress (osmotic stress alone has no stimulatory effect) and is due to the progression of more LR primordia from the pre-emergence to the emergence stage, in salt-stressed plants. In salt-stressed seedlings, greater numbers of LR primordia exhibit expression of a reporter gene driven by the auxin-sensitive DR5 promoter than in unstressed seedlings. Moreover, in the auxin transporter mutant aux1-7, the LR proliferation component of the salt SIMR is completely abrogated. The results suggest that salt stress promotes auxin accumulation in developing primordia thereby preventing their developmental arrest at the pre-emergence stage. Examination of ABA and ethylene mutants revealed that ABA synthesis and a factor involved in the ethylene signalling network also regulate the LR proliferation component of the salt SIMR.

Salt‐sensitive glycophytes and salt‐tolerant halophytes employ common mechanisms to cope with salinity, and it is hypothesized that differences in salt tolerance arise because of changes in the regulation of a basic set of salt tolerance genes. We explored the expression of genes involved in two key salt tolerance mechanisms in Arabidopsis thaliana and the halophytic A. thaliana relative model system (ARMS), Thellungiella halophila. Salt overly sensitive 1 (SOS1) is a plasma membrane Na⁺/H⁺ antiporter that retrieves and loads Na⁺ ions from and into the xylem. Shoot SOS1 transcript was more strongly induced by salt in T. halophila while root SOS1 was constitutively higher in unstressed T. halophila. This is consistent with a lower salt‐induced rise in T. halophila xylem sap Na⁺ concentration than in A. thaliana. Thellungiella halophila contained higher unstressed levels of the compatible osmolyte proline than A. thaliana, while under salt stress, T. halophila accumulated more proline mainly in shoots. Expression of the A. thaliana ortholog of proline dehydrogenase (PDH), involved in proline catabolism, was undetectable in T. halophila shoots. The PDH enzyme activity was lower and T. halophila seedlings were hypersensitive to exogenous proline, indicating repression of proline catabolism in T. halophila. Our results suggest that differential gene expression between glycophytes and halophytes contributes to the salt tolerance of halophytes.

Two genes encoding Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) DEAD-box RNA helicases were identified in a functional genomics screen as being down-regulated by multiple abiotic stresses. Mutations in either gene caused increased tolerance to salt, osmotic, and heat stresses, suggesting that the helicases suppress responses to abiotic stress. The genes were therefore designated STRESS RESPONSE SUPPRESSOR1 (STRS1; At1g31970) and STRS2 (At5g08620). In the strs mutants, salt, osmotic, and cold stresses induced enhanced expression of genes encoding the transcriptional activators DREB1A/CBF3 and DREB2A and a downstream DREB target gene, RD29A. Under heat stress, the strs mutants exhibited enhanced expression of the heat shock transcription factor genes, HSF4 and HSF7, and the downstream gene HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN101. Germination of mutant seed was hyposensitive to the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA), but mutants showed up-regulated expression of genes encoding ABA-dependent stress-responsive transcriptional activators and their downstream targets. In wild-type plants, STRS1 and STRS2 expression was rapidly down-regulated by salt, osmotic, and heat stress, but not cold stress. STRS expression was also reduced by ABA, but salt stress led to reduced STRS expression in both wild-type and ABA-deficient mutant plants. Taken together, our results suggest that STRS1 and STRS2 attenuate the expression of stress-responsive transcriptional activators and function in ABA-dependent and ABA-independent abiotic stress signaling networks.

The circadian clock regulates the expression of an array of Arabidopsis genes such as those encoding the LIGHT-HARVESTING CHLOROPHYLL A/B (Lhcb) proteins. We have previously studied the promoters of two of these Arabidopsis genes—Lhcb1*1 and Lhcb1*3—and identified a sequence that binds the clock protein CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED 1 (CCA1). This sequence, designated CCA1-binding site (CBS), is necessary for phytochrome and circadian responsiveness of these genes. In close proximity to this sequence, there exists a G-box core element that has been shown to bind the bZIP transcription factor HY5 in other light-regulated plant promoters. In the present study, we examined the importance of the interaction of transcription factors binding the CBS and the G-box core element in the control of normal circadian rhythmic expression of Lhcb genes. Our results show that HY5 is able to specifically bind the G-box element in the Lhcb promoters and that CCA1 can alter the binding activity of HY5. We further show that CCA1 and HY5 can physically interact and that they can act synergistically on transcription in a yeast reporter gene assay. An absence of HY5 leads to a shorter period of Lhcb1*1 circadian expression but does not affect the circadian expression of CATALASE3 (CAT3), whose promoter lacks a G-box element. Our results suggest that interaction of the HY5 and CCA1 proteins on Lhcb promoters is necessary for normal circadian expression of the Lhcb genes.

Abiotic stresses are a primary cause of crop loss worldwide. The convergence of stress signalling pathways to a common set of transcription factors suggests the existence of upstream regulatory genes that control plant responses to multiple abiotic stresses. To identify such genes, data from published Arabidopsis thaliana abiotic stress microarray analyses were combined with our presented global analysis of early heat stress‐responsive gene expression, in a relational database. A set of Multiple Stress (MST) genes was identified by scoring each gene for the number of abiotic stresses affecting expression of that gene. ErmineJ over‐representation analysis of the MST gene set identified significantly enriched gene ontology biological processes for multiple abiotic stresses and regulatory genes, particularly transcription factors. A subset of MST genes including only regulatory genes that were designated ‘Multiple Stress Regulatory’ (MSTR) genes, was identified. To validate this strategy for identifying MSTR genes, mutants of the highest‐scoring MSTR gene encoding the circadian clock protein CCA1, were tested for altered sensitivity to stress. A double mutant of CCA1 and its structural and functional homolog, LATE ELONGLATED HYPOCOTYL, exhibited greater sensitivity to salt, osmotic and heat stress than wild‐type plants. This work provides a reference data set for further study of MSTR genes.