HORMONAL

CHANGES
DURING ABIOTIC
STRESS
V ina y k uma r S N
 CONTENTS

Introduction​

Phytohormones

Cross-talk

Role

Conclusion

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 INTRODUCTION
Stress
Any deviation from the optimal condition of any factor essential for plants
growth will lead to aberrant change in physiological processes and due to this
plant body will experience tension and this state can be referred to as stress.
It is due to either abiotic factors or biotic factors.
Abiotic stress.
 negative impact of non-living factors on the living organisms in a specific
environment.
 drought, salinity, heat, chilling, freezing.
 The mechanism of stress-response in plants is highly intricate and requires several
integrated pathways to be activated in response to external stresses.
 Because of the complex interactions among various plant hormones and their
ability to control a wide range of physiological processes, they serve as the key
endogenous factors in mediating plant stress response.

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PHYTOHORMONES
• Phytohormones are molecules produced in
very low concentrations but able to regulate a
variety of cellular processes in plants.
• The major hormones produced by plants are
auxins, gibberellins (GA), cytokinins (CK),
abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene (ET), salicylic
acid (SA), jasmonates (JA), brassinosteroids
(BR) and strigolactones.
• Some of the above mentioned plant hormones
have shown positive plant-protective functions
against abiotic stresses.

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ABSCISIC ACID
 Name is due to its role in abscission of plant
leaves.
 “Stress hormone” because it stimulates the
closure of stomata in the epidermis and
increases the tolerance of plants to various
kinds of stresses.
 It plays an influential role during several plant
physiological processes and developmental
stages including seed dormancy and
development, stomatal opening, embryo
morphogenesis, and synthesis of storage
proteins and lipids.

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Behaviour of ABA during abiotic stress
• Essential messenger in the adaptive response of plants to abiotic stress.
• Short-term response:- stomatal closure.
• Long-term response:- regulation of stress- responsive genes.
• ABA accumulates upon occurrence of osmotic stresses because expression levels
of several ABA biosynthesis genes, such as ZEP (also known as LOS6/ABA1),
AAO3, NCED3, and MCSU (also known as LOS5/ABA3), are upregulated by
drought and salt stress.
• It is also involved in robust root growth and other architectural modifications
under drought stress.
• It plays an important role in the regulation of dehydration responsive element
(DRE)-BINDING PROTEIN (DREB) transcription factors, under osmotic stress
conditions.
• It upregulates the processes involved in cell turgor maintenance and synthesis of
osmoprotectants and antioxidant enzymes conferring desiccation tolerance.
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AUXINS

 Stimulates cell elongation in stems, cell

division and differentiation, fruit development,
formation of roots from cuttings, inhibition of
lateral branching (apical dominance), and in
leaf fall (abscission).
 It increases root and shoot growth of plants
growing under salinity or heavy metal stresses.
 It is an influential constituent of defense
responses via regulation of numerous genes
and mediation of crosstalk between other
hormones in response to experienced stress.

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CYTOKININS
 Cytokinins play an influential roles in many
plant growth and developmental processes and
are considered as master regulators during plant
growth and development.
 They are often considered ABA antagonists.
 In water-stressed plants, decreased CK content
and accumulation of ABA lead to an increased
ABA/CK ratio.
 The reduced CK levels enhance apical
dominance, which together with the ABA
regulation of stomatal aperture, aids in
adaptation to drought stress.

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ETHYLENE

 It is a gaseous phytohormone.
 Involved in several phases of plant growth and
development, notably fruit ripening, flower
senescence, and leaf and petal abscission.
 Low temperature and salinity alter endogenous
Ethylene levels in plants.
 Ethylene has been proposed to function via
modulation of gene expression considered as the
effectors of ethylene signal.

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GIBBERELLINS

o GAs show positive effects on seed

germination, leaf expansion, stem elongation,
flower and trichome initiation, and flower and
fruit development.
o DELLA proteins, belonging to the GRAS
family of transcription factors, are identified as
a major repressor of GA signaling.
o DELLA proteins restrict cell proliferation and
expansion by negatively regulating gibberellin
signaling and hence inhibit the plant growth (
Peng et al., 1997, 1999; Fleet and Sun, 2005).

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BRASSINOSTEROIDS

 First isolated and characterized in pollen of the

rape plant (Brassica napus).
 Play a critical role in stem and root growth,
floral initiation, and development of flowers
and fruits.
 BRs modulates components of antioxidant
defense system in-response-to and to counteract
the abiotic stress-induced oxidative burst.

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JASMONATES (JAs)
 Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and its free acid
jasmonic acid (JA) are collectively called
jasmonates.
 Plant development and survival including
reproductive processes, flowering, fruiting,
senescence, secondary metabolism, and direct and
indirect defense responses.
 Endogenous levels of JA increased in rice roots
under salinity stress and reported to counteract the
deleterious effects of salinity stress. Wang et al,
(2001).
 JAs applications alleviate heavy metal stress in
plants by activating the antioxidant machinery.
2 0 X XYan et al, (2013). PRESENTATION TITLE 12
SALICYLIC ACID (SA)
 Salicylic acid (SA) is a naturally occurring phenolic
compound involved in the regulation of
pathogenesis-associated protein expression.
 Regulation of plant growth, ripening and
development, as well as responses to abiotic
stresses.
 low concentrations of SA enhance the antioxidant
capacity of plants, but high concentrations of SA
cause cell death or susceptibility to abiotic
stresses.
 The SA content in barley roots was increased
approximately twofold by water deficit. Bandurska
et al, (2005)
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STRIGOLACTONES (SL)

 Carotenoid-derived compounds
 First characterized as seed germination
stimulants in root parasitic plants such as Striga,
Orobanche, and Phelipanche species.
 They are produced and exuded in small
amounts primarily in roots.
 In higher plants, they participate in both shoot
and root architecture in response to nutritional
conditions.

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CROSSTALK BETWEEN PHYTOHORMONES SIGNALLING

Defensive phytohormonal signaling pathways :- SA, ET, and JA

growth-regulating phytohormonal pathways :- Auxins, ABA, GA, and CTs

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 Cross talk between ABA and GA
 Regulate the decision between dormancy and germination.
 Antagonistic crosstalk between GA and ABA is regulated by DELLA proteins.
 DELLA proteins are mainly activated when the level of GA is low in cells.
 The RGL2 protein containing a DELLA domain positively regulates ABA
biosynthesis, possibly with the help of XERICO protein that in turn induces the
expression of ABI5 during seed germination under low GA availability.
 NF-YC3, NF-YC4 and NF-YC9 are able to interact with RGL2 and bind to
ABI5 promoter’s CCAAT elements. Hence, ABI5 expression is promoted and
as a result seed germination is suppressed.
 DELLA and ABI5 proteins also control a same set of target genes MFT.
 ABI5 and DELLA proteins regulating MFT expression is the part of system that
make certain a suitable seed germination potential corresponding to the abiotic
conditions.

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Crosstalk between ABA and CK
• Antagonistic in controlling several parameters like stomatal conductance,
photosynthesis and transpiration during stress.
• During abiotic stress situation, ABA and other stress responsive gene expressions
are negatively regulated by AHK2 and AHK3 cytokinin receptor kinases.
• AHK2 and AHK3 are also concerned in responding against cold stress via
reducing ABA induced gene expression.
• ARRs contribute in the interface between cytokinin and ABA during stress where
the activity of ABI5 comes into play.
• A triple mutant encoding the B-type of ARRs, arr1/arr10/arr12 exhibited an ABA-
hypersensitive reaction. ARR4, ARR5 and ARR6, the A-type negative regulators,
were found to downregulate the expression of ABI5 during seed germination.
• In contrast, ABA suppresses the expression of ARR4, ARR5 and ARR6.
• CKs neutralize the arrest of ABA-mediated seedling growth via negatively
regulating the role of ABI5 at protein level.
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Crosstalk between ABA and auxin
• Many phases of the plant growth and development are regulated by ABA and
auxin, but in an antagonistic way.
• ARF2 expression was positively induced by ABA, whereas more ABA sensitivity
was noticed in arf2 mutants during germination of seeds and primary root
development.
• ABA and auxin regulates seed dormancy via signaling crosstalk with the
association of ABI3. Auxins function upstream of ABI3, the chief regulator of
seed dormancy, through employing ARF10 and ARF16 to regulate the ABI3
expression during seed germination.
• ABA and Auxin act synergisticaly to repress seed germination.
• PIN1 is a gene coding for auxin transporter, exhibited a diminished expression at
the time of osmotic stress.
• ABI5 contributed to the reduction in the size of root apical meristem through a
negative regulation on the PIN1 content.
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 Crosstalk between ABA and ethylene
• ABA and ethylene dynamically regulates the physiological event of stomatal
closing.
• ABA stimulated closure of stomata in leaves is hindered by increased ethylene
level.
• ABA holds back ethylene production by absolutely interacting with ERF11
through LONG HYPOCOTYL5 (HY5) TF to inhibit expression of rate-limiting
enzyme encoded by ACS5.
• HY5 acts as a central link in the biosynthesis of ABA and ethylene.
• ABA regulates ripening of mango fruit and its effects are influenced by ethylene
production.

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 Crosstalk between ABA and JA

• Antagonistic relation between ABA and JA signal transduction pathways to

regulate defense- or stress-stimulated gene expression.
• MYC2 is considered as a core regulator of ABA and JA signaling in Arabidopsis.
• ABI5 also seems to contribute in the crosstalk between ABA-JA.
• ABI5 and MYC2 is transformed at the protein level by means of the subunit of
MEDIATOR complex–MED25.
• Expression of ABA-responsive genes like EM1, EM2 and JA-responsive genes
involving VSP1, LOX2 is oppositely regulated by MED25.
• JA signal transduction with the help of WRKY57 TF activity can also modify the
expression of ABI5.
• WRKY57 could mediate the link between JA and ABA signaling via ABI5
regulation.

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 Crosstalk between ABA and Brassinosteroid

• ABA and BR had a synergistic interaction headed for defense against drought
rather than the use of ABA alone.
• Crosstalk between ABA and BR have also been accounted in case of seed
germination, such as, BR-associated Arabidopsis mutants bri1-1 and det2-1
exhibited better response to the restraining impacts of ABA.
• ABI5 is a target of vital brassinosteroid signaling constituents like BIN2 and
BZR1.
• During seed germination and abiotic stress, BIN2 plays a significant role in
ABA-responsive pathway. BIN2 phosphorylates ABI5 in order to activate ABA
signaling during seed germination.

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 Crosstalk between ABA and Strigolactones

• Strigolactones biosynthesis in plants is induced by ABA levels.

• Genes accountable for regulating the biosynthesis of strigolactone are CCD7 and
CCD8 which are the correlated components of the NCED gene family.
• ABA and strigolactones originate from the same precursor (viz., carotenoids);
which makes the two processes inter-dependent.

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Role of phytohormones in abiotic stress tolerance

1. Hormones help in pollen development under cold stress

• GA and ABA are considered major signals for cold-induced pollen sterility.
• Zhang et al. developed a hybrid seed production line in the form of a new
photoperiod-sensitive genetic male sterile line by using transcription
regulation of pollen development.

2. Hormonal balance under cold stress

• Kolaksazov et al. reported that stress phytohormones such as ABA, JA and
SA trigger phosphoprotein cascade pathways, leading to expression of
genes associated with cold stress tolerance.

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3. Salicylic acid increases germination, seedling growth, and enzymes activity
• Gharib et al. showed that SA stimulated various growth aspects of bean
seedlings, was responsible for biosynthesis of growth-promoting and
-inhibiting substances, and reduced the adverse effect of cold stress in
common bean.

4. Phytohormones alleviate high-temperature stress

• Chhabra et al. performed an experiment to test the effect of various hormonal
concentrations on heat-stress effects and observed that both growth-
promoting and growth-retarding hormones mitigated heat-stress effects.

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 CONCLUSION

Plants utilize elaborate signaling pathways in responding to stresses. In

addition to other small molecules such as Ca2+ and ROS, plant
hormones trigger specific signal cascades upon abiotic or biotic stress
perception. The fluctuations in several key hormone levels such as
ABA, ET, SA and JA occur as early responses to stress. These affect
metabolic processes that ultimately result in an altered growth pattern
suitable for withstanding the environmental stress.

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THANK
YOU…

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