DCA1 Acts as a Transcriptional Co-activator of DST and Contributes to Drought and Salt Tolerance in XXXX .

@entity5568 @entity219 @entity579
UNASSIGNED: Natural disasters, including drought and salt stress, seriously threaten food security. In previous work we cloned a key @entity219 finger transcription factor gene, Drought and Salt Tolerance (DST), a negative regulator of drought and salt tolerance that controls stomatal aperture in @entity579 . However, the exact mechanism by which DST regulates the expression of target genes remains unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that DST Co-activator 1 (DCA1), a previously unknown CHY zinc finger protein, acts as an interacting co-activator of DST. DST was found to physically interact with itself and to form a heterologous tetramer with DCA1. This transcriptional complex appears to regulate the expression of peroxidase 24 precursor (Prx 24), a gene encoding an @entity5568 scavenger that is more highly expressed in guard cells. Downregulation of DCA1 significantly enhanced drought and salt tolerance in @entity579 , and overexpression of DCA1 increased sensitivity to stress treatment. These phenotypes were mainly influenced by DCA1 and negatively regulated stomatal closure through the direct modulation of genes associated with @entity5568 homeostasis. Our findings establish a framework for plant drought and salt stress tolerance through the DCA1-DST-Prx24 pathway. Moreover, due to the evolutionary and functional conservation of DCA1 and DST in plants, engineering of this pathway has the potential to improve tolerance to abiotic stress in other important crop species.
