Distinct heat shock factors and chromatin modifications mediate the organ-autonomous transcriptional memory of heat stress.

Plants can be primed by a stress cue to mount a faster or stronger activation of defense mechanisms upon subsequent stress. A crucial component of such stress priming is the modified reactivation of genes upon recurring stress; however, the underlying mechanisms of this are poorly understood. Here, we report that dozens of Arabidopsis thaliana genes display transcriptional memory, i.e. stronger upregulation after a recurring heat stress, that lasts for at least 3 days. We define a set of transcription factors involved in this memory response and show that the transcriptional memory results in enhanced transcriptional activation within minutes of the onset of a heat stress cue. Further, we show that the transcriptional memory is active in all tissues. It may last for up to a week, and is associated during this time with histone H3 lysine 4 hypermethylation. This transcriptional memory is cis-encoded, as we identify a promoter fragment that confers memory onto a heterologous gene. In summary, heat-induced transcriptional memory is a widespread and sustained response, and our study provides a framework for future mechanistic studies of somatic stress memory in higher plants.

Calcium-induced proline accumulation contributes to amelioration of NaCl injury and expression of glutamine synthetase in greater duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza L.).

The calcium-mediated proline accumulation is a critical response under NaCl stress and the function of the induced proline as a glutamine synthetase (GS) protectant in greater duckweed was investigated. The plants were treated with solutions containing 100mM NaCl, 200 mM NaCl, 200 mM NaCl plus 10mM CaCl2, or 10mM CaCl2 alone for 4 days. At the end of the experiment, the fronds of inoculum treated with 200 mM NaCl showed the chlorotic effect, higher glutamate dehydrogenase (NADH-GDH) activity and lower GS activity. At the lower salinity, the activities of GS and NADH-GDH were not altered markedly. A significant accumulation of proline was not found under either low or high salinity. The activity of Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase (P5CR) was enhanced only at 200 mM NaCl but remained unchanged at 100mM NaCl. The activity of Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS) did not change under salinity-stressed. Addition of CaCl2 to the salt stressed plants not only lowered NaCl injury but also showed an elevated level of proline contents in response to the salinity treatment. In addition, both GS activity and corresponding polypeptides were expressed close to the level of control. Exogenous proline protects GS2 and the 32 kDa protein in photosystem II reaction center (D1) from H2O2-induced redox degradation in the chloroplast lysates of duckweed. The results suggest that calcium-induced proline accumulation may play an important role as a GS protectant under NaCl exposure in S. polyrhiza.

Calcium-mediated responses and glutamine synthetase expression in greater duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza L.) under diethyl phthalate-induced stress.

This study was carried out to assess the influence of diethyl phthalate (DEP) alone or associated with calcium chloride (CaCl2) on greater duckweed plants, emphasizing the implications of calcium in amelioration of DEP-induced stress on plant growth. Greater duckweed were treated with DEP in variable concentrations, as 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0mM for 7 days, or treated with the same concentration either 2mM DEP or 2mM DEP plus 10mM CaCl2·2H2O in different duration 0-7 days. Treatment with 2mM DEP resulted in increasing proline content, protease activity, and ammonia accumulation in duckweed tissues. NADH-glutamate dehydrogenase (NADH-GDH; EC 1.4.1.2) and Δ(1)-pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase (P5CR; EC 1.5.1.2), two key enzymes in the glutamate pathway of proline synthesis, showed increase in activity with DEP treatment and positively correlated with proline accumulation. No further increase in proline accumulation was observed with addition of calcium chloride to the DEP-treated cultures. However, supplementation of Ca(2+) can mitigate the adverse effect of DEP, at least in part to decrease the DEP-induced superoxide accumulation and increase in GDH activity for ammonia assimilation in duckweed fronds. In addition, effects of calcium on mitigation of DEP injury were also observed in glutamine synthetase (GS; EC 6.3.1.2) expression. Both GS1 and GS2 polypeptide accumulation and the level of total GS activity were nearly equivalent to the control. Exogenous proline protects GS2 from DEP-modulated redox damage in the chloroplast lysates but there is no remarkable protection effects on D1 (the 32kDa protein in photosystem II reaction center) degradation. In conclusion, the glutamate pathway of proline synthesis might be involved in mitigation of DEP-induced injury, and calcium plays an important role in increasing GDH, P5CR, and GS expression.