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Cotton seedling drought tolerance is improved via salt preconditioning

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Abstract

In this study, 12 upland cotton seedlings were used as the material, and four treatments were designed (15% PEG for 6 h, 250 mM NaCl for 3 h, 15% PEG for 6 h after 250 mM NaCl pretreatment, and blank control). Various physiological indicators, including the malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline (Pro) contents and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities, and the relative electrolyte leakage (REL), were measured during exposure to the aforementioned stresses, and three stress-related transcription factors (GhHsfA, GhbZIP, and GhNAC) were used to assess the differences in the drought resistance of cotton during exposure to PEG stress and NaCl/PEG combined stress. The analyses of the physiological and biochemical indicators revealed that the cotton seedlings exposed to NaCl/PEG combined stress exhibited the highest relative changes in the SOD and POD enzyme activities, while the relative changes in the MDA content and REL were relatively small. The cluster analysis showed that the treatments could be ranked as follows based on degree of damage exhibited by the exposed cotton seedlings: PEG > NaCl > NaCl/PEG. The exposure of cotton to NaCl/PEG combined stress resulted in a lower degree of damage than that obtained after exposure to PEG alone, which indicated that an appropriate amount of NaCl could partially relieve the adverse effects of drought on cotton seedlings. In addition, the relative expression levels of GhHsfA, GhbZIP, and GhNAC were significantly correlated with multiple physiological and biochemical indicators under different stresses, and the principal component analysis identified these transcription factors as important indicators. Based on these findings, these three transcription factors can be used as molecular indicators for the identification of drought resistance. A comprehensive D value cluster analysis ranked the 12 cotton varieties based on their drought resistance, and the most drought-resistant variety was ND359-5. This study provides new methods and materials for research on drought resistance in cotton.

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Abbreviations

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

Pro:

Proline

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

POD:

Peroxidase

EL:

Electrolyte leakage

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

E :

Characteristic value

CR:

Contribution rate

TCR:

Cumulative contribution rate

FW:

Factor weight

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the reviewers for their comments and suggestion.

Funding

This work was supported by a major special project for the cultivation of new varieties of genetically modified organisms (2016ZX08005-004-009).

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Author notes

  1. Rong Fan and Xiujuan Su contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Agronomy, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China

    Rong Fan, Xiujuan Su, Yaping Guo, Fenglei Sun, Yanying Qu & Quanjia Chen

Authors
  1. Rong Fan
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  2. Xiujuan Su
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  3. Yaping Guo
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  4. Fenglei Sun
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  5. Yanying Qu
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Contributions

Rong Fan, Xiujuan Su, and Yaping Guo conceived and designed the experiment. Rong Fan and Xiujuan Su performed most of the research. Yaping Guo, Fenglei Sun, and Yanying Qu analyzed the data. Rong Fan, Xiujuan Su, and Quanjia Chen wrote and revised the manuscript. Rong Fan and Xiujuan Su contributed equally. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Quanjia Chen.

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Fan, R., Su, X., Guo, Y. et al. Cotton seedling drought tolerance is improved via salt preconditioning. Protoplasma 258, 263–277 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-020-01561-6

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