A Peroxidase Gene GmPrx16 Confers Drought Tolerance in Soybean

Over the past 100 years, global water use has increased six-fold, and the increase in drought has resulted in substantial decreases in crop production over the past several decades. Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] originally domesticated in China approximately 5000 years ago and subsequently expanded worldwide, and become an essential and primary source of vegetable oil and protein as well as a supplement in livestock feed. However, soybean is one of the most drought sensitive crops and drought can substantially reduce its yield and quality. Therefore, breeding high-yield, drought-tolerance soybeans is crucial to meet the increasing demand for soybean production and to cope with the worsening water deficit

Recently, a research team led by Prof. TIAN Zhixi at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has cooperated with Prof. MA Junkui at the Industrial Crop Institute of Shanxi Agriculture University/Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences identified the drought tolerance value of 585 soybean accessions that covered the major planting areas of the world to mine the genes and corresponding beneficial alleles in soybean germplasms.

One significant locus was detected on chromosomes 16 through GWAS. Future analysis showed a peroxidase which harbored a nonsynonymous SNP was the casual gene in the locus, and the nonsynonymous mutations resulted in peroxidase activity differences between the two GmPrx16 haplotypes. Furthermore, overexpression GmPrx16 in Dongnong No.50 could improve the peroxidase activity and enhance the drought tolerance in soybean, nevertheless, GmPrx16 RNAi transgenic lines reduced the peroxidase activity and showed drought-sensitive phenotype. Interestingly, overexpressing GmPrx16 could improve salt tolerance in soybean at the same time, indicating multiple applications of GmPrx16 in breading abiotic tolerant soybean.

GmDRF1 and GmDRF2 could bind to the promoter of GmPrx16 and regulated the expression level of GmPrx16, proposing the work model of GmPrx16: drought stress induces the expression of GmDRF1 and GmDRF2, GmDRF1 and GmDRF2 physically interact with the promoter of GmPrx16, and promote its expression, thereby influencing the accumulation of ROS and regulating drought tolerance in soybean.

The paper entitled "Natural allelic diversities of GmPrx16 confer drought tolerance in soybean" was published online in Plant Biotechnology Journal (doi: 10.1111/pbi.14249) on November 23, 2023.

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1201101), the Taishan Scholars Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32388201, 32001501), Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory Project (grant no. B21HJ0002, grant no. B23YQ1501), Science and Technology Innovation Team of Soybean Modern Seed Industry In Hebei  (21326313D), Support Plan for Innovation and Development of Key Industries in South Xinjiang (2022DB015), the Seed-Industrialized Development Program in Shandong Province (2021LZGC003) and Provincial Special Fund for Science and Technology Innovation and Development of Agricultural High-tech Industrial Demonstration Area of the Yellow River Delta of Shandong Province (2022SZX15).

 

Contact:

Dr. TIAN Zhixi

Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Email: zxtian@genetics.ac.cn