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Article|02 May 2020|OPEN
The RhHB1/RhLOX4 module affects the dehydration tolerance of rose flowers (Rosa hybrida) by fine-tuning jasmonic acid levels
Youwei Fan1 , Jitao Liu1,2 , Jing Zou1 , Xiangyu Zhang1 , Liwei Jiang1 , Kun Liu1 , Peitao Lü1 and Junping Gao1 , Changqing Zhang,1 ,
1Department of Ornamental Horticulture, College of Horticulture, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
2Crop Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510642, China
*Corresponding author. E-mail: chqzhang@cau.edu.cn

Horticulture Research 7,
Article number: 74 (2020)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-020-0299-z
Views: 984

Received: 21 Nov 2019
Revised: 11 Mar 2020
Accepted: 16 Mar 2020
Published online: 02 May 2020

Abstract

Phytohormones are key factors in plant responsiveness to abiotic and biotic stresses, and maintaining hormone homeostasis is critically important during stress responses. Cut rose (Rosa hybrida) flowers experience dehydration stress during postharvest handling, and jasmonic acid (JA) levels change as a result of this stress. However, how JA is involved in dehydration tolerance remains unclear. We investigated the functions of the JA- and dehydration-induced RhHB1 gene, which encodes a homeodomain-leucine zipper I γ-clade transcription factor, in rose flowers. Silencing RhHB1 decreased petal dehydration tolerance and resulted in a persistent increase in JA-Ile content and reduced dehydration tolerance. An elevated JA-Ile level had a detrimental effect on rose petal dehydration tolerance. RhHB1 was shown to lower the transient induction of JA-Ile accumulation in response to dehydration. In addition to transcriptomic data, we obtained evidence that RhHB1 suppresses the expression of the lipoxygenase 4 (RhLOX4) gene by directly binding to its promoter both in vivo and in vitro. We propose that increased JA-Ile levels weaken the capacity for osmotic adjustment in petal cells, resulting in reduced dehydration tolerance. In conclusion, a JA feedback loop mediated by an RhHB1/RhLOX4 regulatory module provides dehydration tolerance by fine-tuning bioactive JA levels in dehydrated flowers.