Regulatory mechanisms of Nitraria tangutorum in response to drought stress and functional verification of NtPP2C51-like
- 1College of Forestry, Gansu Agricultural University
Abstract
Nitraria tangutorum is a pioneer shrub species for windbreak and sand fixation in desert regions. Drought stress caused by continuous global warming poses a significant environmental challenge to the growth and development of N. tangutorum . This study employed the N. tangutorum 2-17-16 from the Zhangye provenance as the experimental material to analyze the physiological and biochemical changes and transcriptome data of N. tangutorum seedlings under PEG-simulated drought stress, systematically elucidating the regulatory mechanisms underlying responses to drought stress in N. tangutorum at physiological and molecular levels. Furthermore, the function of the core regulatory gene NtPP2C51-like in drought resistance responses of N. tangutorum was investigated via heterologous overexpression in Nicotiana benthamiana . The results indicated that N. tangutorum responded to PEG-simulated drought stress by specifically increasing the content of osmoprotectants and activity of antioxidant enzymes. Under PEG-simulated drought stress, differentially expressed genes were significantly enriched in pathways such as Plant hormone signal transduction and MAPK signaling pathway-plant. Genes such as IAA , GID1 , ETR , EBF1/2 , and PP2C play significant roles in the response of N. tangutorum to drought stress. Under drought stress, N. benthamiana plants overexpressing NtPP2C51-like exhibited faster water loss, higher MDA content, lower contents of osmoprotectants, and lower antioxidant enzyme activities than wild-type plants. At 7 d of drought treatment, MDA content in the overexpression lines was 1.31–1.39-fold higher, whereas soluble sugar content was only 57–61% of that in wild-type plants, indicating that NtPP2C51-like overexpression increases drought sensitivity in the heterologous N. benthamiana system and suggesting a potential negative role of NtPP2C51-like in the drought response of N. tangutorum . These results provide a theoretical basis for understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying drought adaptation in N. tangutorum and provide candidate genes for further drought-tolerance studies and genetic improvement of this ecologically important desert plant overall.
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BibTeX
@article{li2026regulatory,
title = {{Regulatory mechanisms of Nitraria tangutorum in response to drought stress and functional verification of NtPP2C51-like}},
author = {Xiaolan Li and Hanghang Liu and Yi Li},
journal = {Frontiers in Plant Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fpls.2026.1964307},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1964307/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Regulatory mechanisms of Nitraria tangutorum in response to drought stress and functional verification of NtPP2C51-like
AU - Xiaolan Li
AU - Hanghang Liu
AU - Yi Li
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
JO - Frontiers in Plant Science
DO - 10.3389/fpls.2026.1964307
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1964307/full
AB - Nitraria tangutorum is a pioneer shrub species for windbreak and sand fixation in desert regions. Drought stress caused by continuous global warming poses a significant environmental challenge to the growth and development of N. tangutorum . This study employed the N. tangutorum 2-17-16 from the Zhangye provenance as the experimental material to analyze the physiological and biochemical changes and transcriptome data of N. tangutorum seedlings under PEG-simulated drought stress, systematically elucidating the regulatory mechanisms underlying responses to drought stress in N. tangutorum at physiological and molecular levels. Furthermore, the function of the core regulatory gene NtPP2C51-like in drought resistance responses of N. tangutorum was investigated via heterologous overexpression in Nicotiana benthamiana . The results indicated that N. tangutorum responded to PEG-simulated drought stress by specifically increasing the content of osmoprotectants and activity of antioxidant enzymes. Under PEG-simulated drought stress, differentially expressed genes were significantly enriched in pathways such as Plant hormone signal transduction and MAPK signaling pathway-plant. Genes such as IAA , GID1 , ETR , EBF1/2 , and PP2C play significant roles in the response of N. tangutorum to drought stress. Under drought stress, N. benthamiana plants overexpressing NtPP2C51-like exhibited faster water loss, higher MDA content, lower contents of osmoprotectants, and lower antioxidant enzyme activities than wild-type plants. At 7 d of drought treatment, MDA content in the overexpression lines was 1.31–1.39-fold higher, whereas soluble sugar content was only 57–61% of that in wild-type plants, indicating that NtPP2C51-like overexpression increases drought sensitivity in the heterologous N. benthamiana system and suggesting a potential negative role of NtPP2C51-like in the drought response of N. tangutorum . These results provide a theoretical basis for understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying drought adaptation in N. tangutorum and provide candidate genes for further drought-tolerance studies and genetic improvement of this ecologically important desert plant overall.
SN - 1664-462X
ER -