Relationship between Chalkiness and the Structural and Physicochemical Properties of Rice Starch at Different Nighttime Temperatures during the Early Grain-Filling Stage.

The chalkiness, starch fine structure, and physiochemical properties of rice starch were analyzed and their correlations were investigated under different nighttime temperatures during the early grain-filling stage. Compared to MT, medium temperature (MT) and low (LNT) and high (HNT) nighttime temperatures resulted in an increased chalky grain rate (CGR) and chalkiness degree (CD). LNT mainly affected the chalkiness by increasing peak1 (short branch chains of amylopectin), the branching degree, and the proportion of small starch granules but decreasing peak2 (long branch chains of amylopectin) and peak3 (amylose branches). This altered the pasting properties, such as by increasing the peak viscosity and final viscosity. However, HNT mainly affected the chalkiness by increasing peak2 and the crystallinity degree but decreasing peak1 and peak3. Regarding the thermal properties, HNT also elevated peak and conclusion temperatures. The CGR and CD were significantly and positively correlated with the proportions of small and medium starch granules, peak1, branching degree, gelatinization enthalpy, setback viscosity, and pasting time but markedly and negatively correlated with the proportion of large starch granules, amylose content, peak3, peak viscosity, and breakdown viscosity. These findings suggest that LNT and HNT disrupted the starch structure, resulting in increased chalkiness. However, their mechanisms of action differ.

Leaf diffusional capacity largely contributes to the reduced photosynthesis in rice plants under magnesium deficiency.

Numerous studies have clarified the impacts of magnesium (Mg) on leaf photosynthesis from the perspectives of protein synthesis, enzymes activation and carbohydrate partitioning. However, it still remains largely unknown how stomatal and mesophyll conductances (gs and gm, respectively) are regulated by Mg. In the present study, leaf gas exchanges, leaf hydraulic parameters, leaf structural traits and cell wall composition were examined in rice plants grown under high and low Mg treatments to elucidate the impacts of Mg on gs and gm. Our results showed that reduction of leaf photosynthesis under Mg deficiency was mainly caused by the decreased gm, followed by reduced leaf biochemical capacity and gs, and leaf outside-xylem hydraulic conductance (Kox) was the major factor restricting gs under Mg deficiency. Moreover, increased leaf hemicellulose, lignin and pectin contents and decreased cell wall effective porosity were observed in low Mg plants relative to high Mg plants. These results suggest that Kox and cell wall composition play important roles in regulating gs and gm, respectively, in rice plants under Mg shortages.

Multi-omics reveals deoxycholic acid modulates bile acid metabolism via the gut microbiota to antagonize carbon tetrachloride-induced chronic liver injury.

Deoxycholic acid (DCA) serves essential functions in both physiological and pathological liver processes; nevertheless, the relationship among DCA, gut microbiota, and metabolism in chronic liver injury remain insufficiently understood. The primary objective of this study is to elucidate the potential of DCA in ameliorating chronic liver injury and evaluate its regulatory effect on gut microbiota and metabolism via a comprehensive multi-omics approach. Our study found that DCA supplementation caused significant changes in the composition of gut microbiota, which were essential for its antagonistic effect against CCl4-induced chronic liver injury. When gut microbiota was depleted with antibiotics, the observed protective efficacy of DCA against chronic liver injury became noticeably attenuated. Mechanistically, we discovered that DCA regulates the metabolism of bile acids (BAs), including 3-epi DCA, Apo-CA, and its isomers 12-KLCA and 7-KLCA, IHDCA, and DCA, by promoting the growth of A.muciniphila in gut microbiota. This might lead to the inhibition of the IL-17 and TNF inflammatory signaling pathway, thereby effectively countering CCl4-induced chronic liver injury. This study illustrates that the enrichment of A. muciniphila in the gut microbiota, mediated by DCA, enhances the production of secondary bile acids, thereby mitigating chronic liver injury induced by CCl4. The underlying mechanism may involve the inhibition of hepatic IL-17 and TNF signaling pathways. These findings propose a promising approach to alleviate chronic liver injury by modulating both the gut microbiota and bile acids metabolism.

Targeted quantitative lipidomic uncovers lipid biomarkers for predicting the presence of compensated cirrhosis and discriminating decompensated cirrhosis from compensated cirrhosis.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to characterize serum lipid metabolism and identify potential biomarkers for compensated cirrhosis (CC) predicting and decompensated cirrhosis (DC) discrimination using targeted quantitative lipidomics and machine learning approaches. METHODS: Serum samples from a cohort of 120 participants was analyzed, including 90 cirrhosis patients (45 CC patients and 45 DC patients) and 30 healthy individuals. Lipid metabolic profiling was performed using targeted LC-MS/MS. Two machine learning methods, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and random forest (RF) were applied to screen for candidate metabolite biomarkers. RESULTS: The metabolic profiling analysis showed a significant disruption in patients with CC and DC. Compared to the CC group, the DC group exhibited a significant upregulation in the abundance of glycochenodeoxycholic acid (GCDCA), glyco-ursodeoxycholic acid (GUDCA), glycocholic acid (GCA), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), N-acyl-lyso-phosphatidylethanolamine (LNAPE), and triglycerides (TG), and a significant downregulation in the abundance of ceramides (Cer) and lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC). Machine learning identified 11 lipid metabolites (abbreviated as BMP11) as potential CC biomarkers with excellent prediction performance, with an AUC of 0.944, accuracy of 94.7 %, precision of 95.6 %, and recall of 95.6 %. For DC discrimination, eight lipids (abbreviated as BMP8) were identified, demonstrating strong efficacy, with an AUC of 0.968, accuracy of 92.2 %, precision of 88.0 %, and recall of 97.8 %. CONCLUSIONS: This study unveiled distinct lipidomic profiles in CC and DC patients and established robust lipid-based models for CC predicting and DC discrimination.

Increased stomatal conductance and leaf biochemical capacity, not mesophyll conductance, contributing to the enhanced photosynthesis in Oryza plants during domestication.

MAIN CONCLUSION: Leaf biochemical capacity and the ratio of leaf biochemical capacity to stomatal conductance are promising to enhance leaf photosynthetic rate and water use efficiency in rice plants, respectively. Domestication may have great impact on crop photosynthetic rate, which has not been fully understood, especially from the perspective of stomatal conductance, mesophyll conductance, and leaf biochemical capacity simultaneously. In this study, we constructed a database consisting of 141 and 92 sets of data from wild and cultivated rice, respectively, including leaf gas exchange parameters, hydraulic conductance, structural traits, and nitrogen content. We found that, compared to wild rice, enhanced leaf photosynthetic rate in cultivated rice was mainly resulted by the increased stomatal conductance and leaf biochemical capacity, rather than mesophyll conductance. The unchanged mesophyll conductance observed during domestication suggested that it might have been optimized during plant evolution in wild rice. Additionally, the positive relationship between stomatal density and stomatal conductance disappeared in Oryza plants during domestication, suggesting that stomatal conductance in cultivated rice is less restricted by stomatal density, compared to wild rice. Moreover, in both wild and cultivated rice, leaf photosynthetic rate was mainly determined by leaf biochemical capacity, rather than stomatal conductance and mesophyll conductance. This study highlighted the important role of stomatal conductance and leaf biochemical capacity in improvement of leaf photosynthetic rate in rice during domestication. Leaf biochemical capacity and the ratio of leaf biochemical capacity to stomatal conductance should be further investigated to enhance leaf photosynthetic rate and water use efficiency in rice plants, respectively.

Long-term straw return improves cooked indica rice texture by altering starch structural, physicochemical properties in South China.

Straw return can improve rice eating quality by modifying starch formation from long-term field trials, whereas the relevant mechanisms are still unknown. A long-term field experiment, including straw removal (CK), straw burning return (SBR), and straw return (SR) was conducted to investigate the starch structure, physicochemical properties, and cooked rice textures of indica early- and late-rice. Compared with CK, SBR and SR enhanced relative crystallinity, amylopectin long chains in both rice seasons, and gelatinization temperatures in late rice. Compared to SBR, SR decreased protein content and amylopectin short chains but increased starch branching degree, breakdown, and stickiness, ultimately contributing to improved starch thermal and pasting properties. Meanwhile, SR decreased hardness, cohesiveness, and chewiness, resulting in cooked texture meliorated, which was mainly attributed to amylopectin chain length and starch granule size. The results suggest that SR increased cooked texture of indica rice by altering starch structural and physicochemical properties.

Starch multiscale structure and physicochemical property alterations in high-quality indica rice quality and cooked rice texture under different nitrogen panicle fertilizer applications.

The starch multiscale structure, physiochemical properties, grain quality and cooked rice texture of high-quality early and late indica were analyzed under nitrogen panicle fertilizer (low panicle fertilizer, LPF; middle panicle fertilizer, MPF; high panicle fertilizer, HPF) treatments and their internal relations were investigated. Compared to the MPF treatment, the starch granules in HPF and LPF had more surface-proteins and irregular voids for high-quality early and late indica rice cultivars, respectively. Nitrogen panicle fertilization application increased amylopectin medium and long chains as well as protein content, resulting in higher relative crystallinity and gelatinization temperatures. Moderate changes in starch multistructures and physicochemical properties such as branching degree, amylopectin medium chain, and pasting viscosities derived from MPF treatment significantly improved processing, appearance qualities and cooked rice texture. Additionally, the decrease in starch branching, gelatinization temperatures, and granule uniformity along with an increase in large granules, breakdown, and △Hgel under MPF treatment were the main reasons for improving rice textural properties.

Grain yield and quality performances of different late-season rice cultivars in response to experimental warming in subtropical China.

Introduction: Climate warming has pronounced effects on rice production in China. However, late-seasons rice cultivars are diverse in double rice cropping systems, and the actual responses in grain yield and quality of different late-season rice cultivars to climate warming are still unclear. Methods: A two-year field warming experiment was conducted by using free-air temperature increase facilities with three widely-planted late-season rice cultivars, including Taiyou398 (TY, short growth duration indica hybrid rice), Jiuxiangnian (JXN, long growth duration indica inbred rice), and Yongyou1538 (YY, long growth duration indica-japonica hybrid rice) in a double rice cropping system in subtropical China. Results: Warming (1.9-2.0°C) had no significant effects on the grain yields of TY and JXN, but significantly decreased that of YY by 4.8% relative to ambient treatment due to a reduction of spikelet number. Compared to ambient treatment, the head rice yields of TY and YY did not change while that of JXN increased by 6.3% under warming conditions. Warming significantly increased the head rice rates of JXN and YY by 6.6% and 7.8%, and the chalky grain rates of TY, JXN, and YY by 79.1%, 21.6%, and 7.6%, respectively. Under warming conditions, the amylose content of JXN and YY decreased significantly by 7.5% and 8.8%, and the setback of three cultivars decreased significantly by an average of 41.5%. Conclusion: Warming could improve the milling and eating qualities of long growth duration late-season rice (JXN and YY) and increase or maintain their head rice yield, even though decreased the grain yield of indica-japonica hybrid rice (YY). These results will provide a better understanding for the selection of suitable late-season rice cultivars under future climate warming conditions.

Effects of biochar on rice yield, grain quality and starch viscosity attributes.

BACKGROUND: Biochar can play a key role in improving paddy soil and productivity. However, there is limited information on the effects of biochar on rice quality and starch gelatinization. In this study, four rice straw biochar dosage treatments (0, 20, 40 and 60 g kg-1 ; CK, C20, C40 and C60, respectively) were set up to investigate rice yield components, rice processing, appearance and cooking quality, and starch gelatinization. RESULTS: Addition of biochar increased the effective panicle, grain number per panicle and seed setting rate. However, it decreased the 1000-grain weight, resulting in an increase in yield. In 2019, all the biochar treatments improved the head rice rate (9.13-11.42%), whereas in 2020 only the C20 treatment improved. Low biochar dosage had little effect on grain appearance. High biochar dosage significantly decreased the chalky rice rate by 21.47% and chalkiness by 19.44% in 2019. However, it significantly increased the chalky rice rate and chalkiness by 118.95% and 85.45% in 2020, respectively. Biochar significantly lowered the amylose content except for the C20 and C40 treatments in 2020, and the gel consistency. The C40 and C60 treatments significantly increased the peak and breakdown viscosities and decreased the setback viscosity compared with CK. Correlation analysis showed that starch gelatinization characteristics were significantly correlated with the head rice rate, chalky rate and amylose content. CONCLUSION: A lower biochar dosage can improve the yield and milled rice rate and maintain a higher quality of appearance, whereas a higher biochar dosage can significantly improve starch gelatinization. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Low temperature and light combined stress after heading on starch fine structure and physicochemical properties of late-season indica rice with different grain quality in southern China.

Late-season indica rice frequently encounters low temperature (LT) along with low light (LL) after heading in southern China, which deteriorates the grain quality by altering starch quality. However, the detailed effects on starch properties of these stressors remain unclear. Herein, two indica rice cultivars with good and poor grain quality were grown under control (CK), LT, and LT + LL conditions after heading and the structural and physicochemical properties of their starch were evaluated. Compared with CK, LT and LT + LL worsened thermal and pasting properties of starch in the two cultivars, mainly because they increased branch chain branching and A chain (DP ≤12), and decreased average branch chain length and crystallinity. Compared with LT, LT + LL deteriorated the pasting properties of the poor-quality cultivar, such as reducing breakdown (BD), final and peak viscosity, which mainly owing to decreasing the starch branching and crystallinity degrees, and increasing the small starch granules (d < 10 µm). Gelatinization enthalpy and BD both had significant and positive correlations with amylose content, the ratio of amylose and amylopectin, B3 chain and crystallinity. Taken together, these results suggest that LT and LT + LL during grain filling can deteriorate the physicochemical properties of starch in late-season indica rice cultivars by disrupting starch multilevel structure, especially upon LT + LL. In particular, while poor-quality cultivar had poorer physicochemical properties, the good-quality cultivar had poorer thermal properties under LT + LL.

Interactive effects of water management and liming on CH4 emissions and rice cadmium uptake in an acid paddy soil.

Rice agriculture is both an important source of the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH4) and a bioaccumulator of cadmium (Cd), which is hazardous to human health. Avoiding flooding during rice production is effective for reducing CH4 emissions, but it increases rice Cd uptake. Although lime application decreases Cd concentration in rice grains, it is not clear whether combining appropriate water management with liming can simultaneously reduce CH4 emissions and Cd uptake in rice paddies. Thus, a pot experiment was performed to investigate the interactive effects of water management (F: continuous flooding, FDF: flooding - midseason drainage - flooding, FDI: flooding - midseason drainage - intermittent irrigation) and lime application on CH4 emissions and rice Cd uptake in an acid paddy soil spiked with Cd. Results showed that neither water management nor liming significantly affected grain yield. Overall, liming reduced CH4 emissions by 42.2%. Compared to F, the FDF and FDI treatments reduced CH4 emissions by 43.5% and 54.2%, respectively. Liming reduced CH4 emissions by 32.6% under F, but with a greater decrease of 48.6% and 52.7% under FDF and FDI, respectively. Overall, liming reduced rice Cd uptake by an average of 47.3%. Compared to FDI, F and FDF significantly reduced Cd uptake by 84.0% and 75.1%, respectively, but there was no significant difference between F and FDF. Liming did not significantly affect Cd uptake under F and FDF, whereas liming reduced Cd uptake by 55.9% under FDI. These results suggest that maintaining flooding following midseason drainage can help in reducing rice Cd uptake, though slightly promoting CH4 emissions. Therefore, we recommend FDF combined with liming to mitigate CH4 emissions without increasing rice Cd uptake in acid paddy soils.

Comparative transcriptomic analysis provides insights into the molecular basis underlying pre-harvest sprouting in rice.

BACKGROUND: Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is one of the most serious rice production constraints in areas where prolonged rainfall occurs during harvest. However, the molecular mechanisms of transcriptional regulation underlying PHS remain largely unknown. RESULTS: In the current study, comparative transcriptome analyses were performed to characterize the similarities and differences between two rice varieties: PHS-sensitive Jiuxiangzhan (JXZ) and PHS-resistant Meixiangxinzhan (MXXZ). The physiological experimental results indicated that PHS causes a significant decrease in starch content and, in contrast, a significant increase in soluble sugar content and amylase activity. The extent of change in these physiological parameters in the sensitive variety JXZ was greater than that in the resistant variety MXXZ. A total of 9,602 DEGs were obtained from the transcriptome sequencing data, and 5,581 and 4,021 DEGs were identified in JXZ and MXXZ under high humidity conditions, respectively. The KEGG pathway enrichment analysis indicated that many DEGs under high humidity treatment were mainly linked to plant hormone signal transduction, carbon metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. Furthermore, the number of upregulated genes involved in these pathways was much higher in JXZ than in MXXZ, while the number of downregulated genes was higher in MXXZ than in JXZ. These results suggest that the physiological and biochemical processes of these pathways are more active in the PHS-sensitive JXZ than in the PHS-resistant MXXZ. CONCLUSION: Based on these results, we inferred that PHS in rice results from altered phytohormone regulation, more active carbon metabolism and energy production, and enhanced phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. Our study provides a theoretical foundation for further elucidation of the complex regulatory mechanism of PHS in rice and the molecular breeding of PHS-resistant rice varieties.

Relation of cooked rice texture to starch structure and physicochemical properties under different nitrogen managements.

Nitrogen management, especially panicle nitrogen fertilization (PNF), can affect cooked rice textures by altering starch quality, but the details are unclear. In this study, the starch multi-level structures, physicochemical properties and cooked rice textures of indica under different nitrogen managements were analysed and their internal relations were investigated. With an increase in PNF, large granules, amylopectin short chains, amylose content, thermal temperatures, setback, and hardness first exhibited decreasing trends and then increasing trends, which were relatively lower under moderate PNF (N3), whereas α-1,6 linkage, relative crystallinity, protein content, enthalpy of gelatinization (△Hgel), peak viscosity, breakdown and stickiness exhibited the opposite trends. N3 treatment significantly increased △Hgel and breakdown and decreased setback, hardness and chewiness, suggesting that it might contribute to better starch thermal stability and pasting properties, ultimately improving cooked rice texture. Nitrogen management affected the texture of cooked rice mainly by improving starch multi-level structures, thermal and pasting viscosities.

Health beliefs associated with preventive behaviors against noncommunicable diseases.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between health beliefs and preventive behaviors against noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). METHODS: A survey was conducted in Health Management Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University from August 2019 to December 2019. An structured questionnaire was designed to collect the data on sociodemographic characteristics, health belief model (HBM) constructs and NCD-related behaviors. Structural equation model was used to describe the relationship between health beliefs and the behaviors. RESULTS: Among 4453 participants, the most common unhealthy behaviors were sedentary living and working, mood disorders and staying up late. Female, aging, living in urban areas, good physical health were associated with healthy behaviors. HBM constructs including perceived barriers, self-efficacy, cues to action, perceived benefits, perceived severity, and perceived susceptibility were directly or indirectly related to NCD-related behaviors. Perceived barriers (effect coefficient=0.495) and self-efficacy (effect coefficient=0.435) were found to have the greatest impact on the behaviors. CONCLUSION: Health beliefs are verified to be associated with preventive behaviors against NCDs. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Changing sedentary living and working, mood disorders and staying up late are the top priority of health education. Health education based on HBM, especially focusing on helping overcome difficulties and building confidence of behavior change, may be more effective for the prevention of NCDs.

Transcriptomic, proteomic, and physiological comparative analyses of flooding mitigation of the damage induced by low-temperature stress in direct seeded early indica rice at the seedling stage.

BACKGROUND: Low temperature (LT) often occurs at the seedling stage in the early rice-growing season, especially for direct seeded early-season indica rice, and using flooding irrigation can mitigate LT damage in rice seedlings. The molecular mechanism by which flooding mitigates the damage induced by LT stress has not been fully elucidated. Thus, LT stress at 8 °C, LT accompanied by flooding (LTF) and CK (control) treatments were established for 3 days to determine the transcriptomic, proteomic and physiological response in direct seeded rice seedlings at the seedling stage. RESULTS: LT damaged chloroplasts, and thylakoid lamellae, and increased osmiophilic bodies and starch grains compared to CK, but LTF alleviated the damage to chloroplast structure caused by LT. The physiological characteristics of treated plants showed that compared with LT, LTF significantly increased the contents of rubisco, chlorophyll, PEPCK, ATP and GA3 but significantly decreased soluble protein, MDA and ABA contents. 4D-label-free quantitative proteomic profiling showed that photosynthesis-responsive proteins, such as phytochrome, as well as chlorophyll and the tricarboxylic acid cycle were significantly downregulated in LT/CK and LTF/CK comparison groups. However, compared with LT, phytochrome, chlorophyllide oxygenase activity and the glucan branching enzyme in LTF were significantly upregulated in rice leaves. Transcriptomic and proteomic studies identified 72,818 transcripts and 5639 proteins, and 4983 genes that were identified at both the transcriptome and proteome levels. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were significantly enriched in glycine, serine and threonine metabolism, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and metabolic pathways. CONCLUSION: Through transcriptomic, proteomic and physiological analyses, we determined that a variety of metabolic pathway changes were induced by LT and LTF. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses demonstrated that DEGs and DEPs were associated with photosynthesis pathways, antioxidant enzymes and energy metabolism pathway-related proteins. Our study provided new insights for efforts to reduce the damage to direct seeded rice caused by low-temperature stress and provided a breeding target for low temperature flooding-resistant cultivars. Further analysis of translational regulation and metabolites may help to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which flooding mitigates low-temperature stress in direct seeded early indica rice at the seedling stage.

Water irrigation management affects starch structure and physicochemical properties of indica rice with different grain quality.

The effects of water irrigation management including conventional irrigation (CK), constant flooding irrigation (CFI) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) on starch structure and physicochemical properties of two indica rice cultivars with good- and poor-quality were evaluated in the field condition with two years. The results showed that AWD could significantly increase peak viscosity, breakdown and gelatinization temperature, decreased setback and gelatinization enthalpy in two indica rice cultivars. However, starch granule size and amylopectin chain length distribution were differed the trends in the rice cultivars and treatments. AWD reduced starch granules size and amylopectin short chain, especially for large starch granules, but increased medium and long chain, which might contribute to better thermal stability and pasting viscosity for good-quality cultivar. Our study indicated that water irrigation management affected starch structure and physicochemical properties of indica rice starch, and would provide favorable information for improvement of rice starch in food industry.

Effects of experimental warming on physicochemical properties of indica rice starch in a double rice cropping system.

To evaluate the actual response of rice starch physicochemical properties to climate warming, a field warming experiment was conducted with four indica rice cultivars using free-air temperature increase (FATI) facility in a double rice cropping system. FATI facility increased rice canopy temperature by 1.4-2.1 °C during the entire growth period. The responses of starch physicochemical properties to experimental warming were basically consistent for both early and late rice. On average, experimental warming increased the starch relative crystallinity, granule average diameter, and amylopectin average chain length by 14.3%, 6.9%, and 2.4%, respectively. These resulted in starch with lower swelling power, water solubility, and pasting viscosity, but higher gelatinization temperatures and gelatinization enthalpy. Our study indicated that experimental warming affected the rice starch physicochemical properties, and would provide some useful information on how to guide the rice starch end use in food and non-food industries under climate warming.

AtDPG1 is involved in the salt stress response of Arabidopsis seedling through ABI4.

Although the genes controlling chloroplast development play important roles in plant responses to environmental stresses, the molecular mechanisms remain largely unclear. In this study, an Arabidopsis mutant dpg1 (delayed pale-greening1) with a chloroplast development defect was studied. By using quantitative RT-PCR and histochemical GUS assays, we demonstrated that AtDPG1 was mainly expressed in the green tissues of Arabidopsis seedlings and could be induced by salt stress. Phenotypic analysis showed that mutation in AtDPG1 lead to an enhanced sensitivity to salt stress in Arabidopsis seedlings. Further studies demonstrated that disruption of the AtDPG1 in Arabidopsis increases its sensitivity to salt stress in an ABA-dependent manner. Moreover, expression levels of various stress-responsive and ABA signal-related genes were remarkably altered in the dpg1 plants under NaCl treatment. Notably, the transcript levels of ABI4 in dpg1 mutant increased more significantly than that in wild type plants under salt conditions. The seedlings of dpg1/abi4 double mutant exhibited stronger resistance to salt stress after salt treatment compared with the dpg1 single mutant, suggesting that the salt-hypersensitive phenotype of dpg1 seedlings could be rescued via loss of ABI4 function. These results reveal that AtDPG1 is involved in the salt stress response of Arabidopsis seedling through ABI4.