Identification and functional analysis of calcium sensor calmodulins from heavy metal hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens
Lu Han A B , Xiaohua Wu A B , Kailin Hou A C , Hongshan Zhang A C , Xueshuang Liang A C , Cheng Chen D , Zhijing Wang D and Chenjia Shen
A C *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310036, China.
B Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Organ Development and Regeneration, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310036, China.
C Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Genetic Improvement and Quality Control of Medicinal Plants, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310036, China.
D College of Pharmacy, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China.
Functional Plant Biology 50(4) 294-302 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP22243
Submitted: 9 October 2022 Accepted: 6 January 2023 Published: 23 January 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing
Abstract
Noccaea caerulescens (J. Presl & C. Presl) F. K. Mey. is a heavy metal hyperaccumulator exhibiting extreme tolerance to various environmental stresses. To date, the functional role of Ca2+-binding protein in this plant is largely unknown. To investigate the function of calmodulins (CaMs) in N. caerulescens, CaM2, a Ca2+ sensor encoding gene, was identified and functionally characterised. Protein structure analysis showed that NcCaM2 contains four classic exchange factor (EF)-hand motifs with high sequence similarity to the CaM proteins from model plant Arabidopsis thaliana L. Tissue specific expression analysis showed that NcCaM2 is constitutively expressed in stems, leaves, and roots. Expression level of NcCaM2 was significantly upregulated under various environmental stimulus, indicating a potential involvement of NcCaM2 in the tolerance to abiotic stresses. The heterologous expression of NcCaM2 in a yeast mutant strain increased the heavy metal tolerance in yeast cells. Furthermore, the constitutive expression of NcCaM2 enhanced the heavy metal tolerance capability of transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) plants. Our data suggested an important role of NcCaM2 in the responses to environmental stresses and provided a potential target gene to enhance of the ability to hyperaccumulate metals.
Keywords: abiotic stress, Ca2+ sensor, calmodulin, environmental stress, gene expression, heavy metal stress, heavy-metal tolerance, plant physiology.
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