A novel wheat cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase gene CRK41 is involved in the regulation of seed germination under osmotic stress in Arabidopsis thaliana

摘要

The bread wheat gene TaCRK41 encodes a cysteine-rich receptor kinase. It is down-regulated by various abiotic stresses and by exposure to abscisic acid. A transient expression experiment in Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts involving a fusion between the sequence encoding green fluorescence protein and the TaCRK41 allele from either the salinity tolerant bread wheat cultivar Shanrong No. 3 (SR3) or its salinity sensitive progenitor cultivar Jinan 177 (JN177) showed that the TaCRK41 product is deposited in the cytoplasm. Recombinant TaCRK41 originating from both SR3 and JN177 displayed no kinase activity in vitro. The constitutive expression of TaCRK41 in A. thaliana resulted in a marked reduction in the plants' sensitivity to both exogenous abscisic acid and to salinity during germination. The level of ABA-induced transcription of ABI3, ABI5 and the ABI5-controlled genes EM1 and EM6 was significantly reduced in plants subjected to stress. The data support the idea that TaCRK41 is involved in the regulation of ABA-dependent germination under conditions of osmotic stress.