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Environmental Adaptation Mechanisms of Extremophytes

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 February 2020) | Viewed by 13426

Special Issue Editors

Korea Polar Research Institute, Unit of Polar Genomics, Incheon, Republic of Korea
Interests: cold stress; low temperature; antifreezing protein; drought; Antarctic plants; psychrophilic microalgae
1. Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea
2. Department of Polar Sciences, University of Science and Technology, Incheon, Republic of Korea
Interests: cold and freezing stress; bryophyte; extremophile; Antarctic; Arctic; moss; global warming; genome; transcriptome

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

The Earth is made up of various types of environments, some of which include extreme conditions such as high temperature, drought, freezing, high salinity, or high or low pH, which are unfavorable for most organisms to survive. However, some species have thrived in these extreme conditions through unique adaptation mechanisms.

Extremophile plants (‘extremophytes’) are defined as plants that survive in extreme environments where other plants cannot live. These plants are represented by freezing tolerant Arctic or Antarctic plants or alpine plants, desiccation-tolerant desert plants, or salt-tolerant plants that grow in waters of high salinity, and these plants are typically exposed to complex abiotic stress factors. They have attracted the attention of researchers because of their unique physiological and ecological traits.

In this Special Issue, ‘extremophytes’ are defined as ‘photosynthetic organisms that have adapted to an extreme environment’. This Issue covers all aspects of Viridiplantae in extreme environments. Research articles and comprehensive reviews are welcome.

Dr. Jungeun Lee
Dr. Hyoungseok Lee
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Extremophytes
  • Gene regulation
  • Freezing tolerance
  • Desiccation tolerance
  • High salinity tolerance
  • Environmental adaptation
  • Morphological plasticity
  • Photosynthetic plasticity
  • Transcriptome
  • Metabolome
  • Genomic evolution
  • Ecophysiology
  • Diversity

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 3668 KiB  
Article
Modulation of Energy Metabolism Is Important for Low-Oxygen Stress Adaptation in Brassicaceae Species
by Ji-Hye Hwang, Si-in Yu, Byeong-ha Lee and Dong-Hee Lee
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(5), 1787; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21051787 - 05 Mar 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2799
Abstract
Low-oxygen stress, mainly caused by soil flooding, is a serious abiotic stress affecting crop productivity worldwide. To understand the mechanisms of low-oxygen stress responses and adaptation of plants, we characterized and compared low-oxygen responses in six species with different accessions of the Brassicaceae [...] Read more.
Low-oxygen stress, mainly caused by soil flooding, is a serious abiotic stress affecting crop productivity worldwide. To understand the mechanisms of low-oxygen stress responses and adaptation of plants, we characterized and compared low-oxygen responses in six species with different accessions of the Brassicaceae family. Based on the growth and survival responses to submergence or low-oxygen condition, these accessions could be divided into three groups: (i) Highly tolerant species (Rorippa islandica and Arabis stelleri); (ii) moderately tolerant species (Arabidopsis thaliana [esk-1, Ler, Ws and Col-0 ecotype]); and (iii) intolerant species (Thlaspi arvense, Thellungiella salsuginea [Shandong and Yukon ecotype], and Thellungiella parvula). Gene expression profiling using Operon Arabidopsis microarray was carried out with RNA from roots of A. thaliana (Col-0), A. stelleri, R. islandica, and T. salsuginea (Shandong) treated with low-oxygen stress (0.1% O2/99.9% N2) for 0, 1, 3, 8, 24, and 72 h. We performed a comparative analysis of the gene expression profiles using the gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) method. Our comparative analysis suggested that under low-oxygen stress each species distinctively reconfigures the energy metabolic pathways including sucrose–starch metabolism, glycolysis, fermentation and nitrogen metabolism, tricarboxylic acid flow, and fatty acid degradation via beta oxidation and glyoxylate cycle. In A. thaliana, a moderately tolerant species, the dynamical reconfiguration of energy metabolisms occurred in the early time points of low-oxygen treatment, but the energy reconfiguration in the late time points was not as dynamic as in the early time points. Highly tolerant A. stelleri appeared to have high photosynthesis capacity that could produce more O2 and in turn additional ATP energy to cope with energy depletion caused by low-oxygen stress. R. islandica seemed to retain some ATP energy produced by anaerobic energy metabolism during a prolonged period of low-oxygen conditions. Intolerant T. salsuginea did not show significant changes in the expression of genes involved in anaerobic energy metabolisms. These results indicate that plants developed different energy metabolisms to cope with the energy crisis caused by low-oxygen stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Adaptation Mechanisms of Extremophytes)
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19 pages, 3625 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Analysis of Salt-Sensitive and Tolerant Genotypes Reveals Salt-Tolerance Metabolic Pathways in Sugar Beet
by Gui Geng, Chunhua Lv, Piergiorgio Stevanato, Renren Li, Hui Liu, Lihua Yu and Yuguang Wang
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2019, 20(23), 5910; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20235910 - 25 Nov 2019
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 4626
Abstract
Soil salinization is a common environmental problem that seriously affects the yield and quality of crops. Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), one of the main sugar crops in the world, shows a strong tolerance to salt stress. To decipher the molecular mechanism [...] Read more.
Soil salinization is a common environmental problem that seriously affects the yield and quality of crops. Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), one of the main sugar crops in the world, shows a strong tolerance to salt stress. To decipher the molecular mechanism of sugar beet under salt stress, we conducted transcriptomic analyses of two contrasting sugar beet genotypes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comparison of salt-response transcriptomes in sugar beet with contrasting genotypes. Compared to the salt-sensitive cultivar (S710), the salt-tolerant one (T710MU) showed better growth and exhibited a higher chlorophyll content, higher antioxidant enzyme activity, and increased levels of osmotic adjustment molecules. Based on a high-throughput experimental system, 1714 differentially expressed genes were identified in the leaves of the salt-sensitive genotype, and 2912 in the salt-tolerant one. Many of the differentially expressed genes were involved in stress and defense responses, metabolic processes, signal transduction, transport processes, and cell wall synthesis. Moreover, expression patterns of several genes differed between the two cultivars in response to salt stress, and several key pathways involved in determining the salt tolerance of sugar beet, were identified. Our results revealed the mechanism of salt tolerance in sugar beet and provided potential metabolic pathways and gene markers for growing salt-tolerant cultivars. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Adaptation Mechanisms of Extremophytes)
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21 pages, 4808 KiB  
Article
Overexpression of a Metallothionein 2A Gene from Date Palm Confers Abiotic Stress Tolerance to Yeast and Arabidopsis thaliana
by Himanshu V. Patankar, Ibtisam Al-Harrasi, Latifa Al Kharusi, Gerry Aplang Jana, Rashid Al-Yahyai, Ramanjulu Sunkar and Mahmoud W. Yaish
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2019, 20(12), 2871; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20122871 - 12 Jun 2019
Cited by 49 | Viewed by 5242
Abstract
Although the date palm tree is an extremophile with tolerance to drought and certain levels of salinity, the damage caused by extreme salt concentrations in the soil, has created a need to explore stress-responsive traits and decode their mechanisms. Metallothioneins (MTs) are low-molecular-weight [...] Read more.
Although the date palm tree is an extremophile with tolerance to drought and certain levels of salinity, the damage caused by extreme salt concentrations in the soil, has created a need to explore stress-responsive traits and decode their mechanisms. Metallothioneins (MTs) are low-molecular-weight cysteine-rich proteins that are known to play a role in decreasing oxidative damage during abiotic stress conditions. Our previous study identified date palm metallothionein 2A (PdMT2A) as a salt-responsive gene, which has been functionally characterized in yeast and Arabidopsis in this study. The recombinant PdMT2A protein produced in Escherichia coli showed high reactivity against the substrate 5′-dithiobis-2-nitrobenzoic acid (DTNB), implying that the protein has the property of scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS). Heterologous overexpression of PdMT2A in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) conferred tolerance to drought, salinity and oxidative stresses. The PdMT2A gene was also overexpressed in Arabidopsis, to assess its stress protective function in planta. Compared to the wild-type control, the transgenic plants accumulated less Na+ and maintained a high K+/Na+ ratio, which could be attributed to the regulatory role of the transgene on transporters such as HKT, as demonstrated by qPCR assay. In addition, transgenic lines exhibited higher chlorophyll content, higher superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and improved scavenging ability for reactive oxygen species (ROS), coupled with a better survival rate during salt stress conditions. Similarly, the transgenic plants also displayed better drought and oxidative stress tolerance. Collectively, both in vitro and in planta studies revealed a role for PdMT2A in salt, drought, and oxidative stress tolerance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Adaptation Mechanisms of Extremophytes)
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