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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1443625

A Small Heat Shock Protein (SlHSP17.3) from Tomato Plays a Positive Role in Salt Stress

Provisionally accepted
Guohua Cai Guohua Cai Mingyu Niu Mingyu Niu Zhihao Sun Zhihao Sun Huakun Wang Huakun Wang Shuo Zhang Shuo Zhang Fei Liu Fei Liu Yanqun Wu Yanqun Wu Guodong Wang Guodong Wang *
  • School of Biological Science, Jining Medical University, Jining, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are molecular chaperones that are widely present in plants and play a vital role in the response of plants to various environmental stimuli. This study employed transgenic Arabidopsis to investigate the impact of the new tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) sHSP protein (SlHSP17.3) on salt stress tolerance. Transient conversion analysis of Arabidopsis protoplasts revealed that SlHSP17.3 localized to the cytoplasm. Furthermore, as suggested by expression analysis, salt stress stimulated SlHSP17.3 expression, suggesting that SlHSP17.3 is involved in the salt stress response of plants. SlHSP17.3-overexpressing plants presented greater germination rates, fresh weights, chlorophyll contents, and Fv/Fm ratios; longer root lengths, lower reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and lighter cell membrane injury under salt stress. Furthermore, certain stress-related genes (AtCOR15, AtDREB1B, and AtHSFA2) were up-regulated in salt-stressed transgenic plants. Overall, SlHSP17.3 overexpression improved the salt stress resistance of the transgenic plants, mainly through increasing AtCOR15, AtDREB1B, and AtHSFA2 expression.

    Keywords: salt stress, sHSP, SlHSP17.3, stress-related genes, Transgenic Arabidopsis

    Received: 04 Jun 2024; Accepted: 25 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cai, Niu, Sun, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Wu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Guodong Wang, School of Biological Science, Jining Medical University, Jining, China

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