Gene structure and conserved motifs of RcBURPs
We next examined the gene structure and conserved motifs of the nine RcBURPs and 14 RmBURPs from R. multiflora, which is closely related to R. chinenesis (Fig. 2a). Results of gene structure analyses revealed that the numbers of exon(s) and/or intron(s) were different between members belonging to different subfamilies. As shown in Fig. 2a, RcBURPs contained one to three exons, with most RcBURPs comprising of one (3/9) or two exons (4/9), while two RcBURPs (RcBURP4 and RmBURP9) had three exons. We further investigated conserved motifs of RcBURPs and RmBURPs using the MEME program. Ten conserved motifs were randomly distributed among these BURPs, and most RcBURPs belonging to the same subfamily had similar motifs. Motifs 1–5 were present in all BURPs, except for RmBURP1, RmBURP3, and RmBURP5 (Fig. 2a). Motif 6 and motif 10 were observed in RD22-like, PG1β-like, and BURP-IV subfamilies. In addition, motif 7 was found in both RD22-like and PG1β-like subfamilies. It is worth noting that motif 8 and motif 9 were only present in the PG1β-like subfamily, and members in the PG1β-like subfamily contained all motifs (1–10). Overall, the gene structure and conserved motif composition were similar in members from the same subfamily, which confirmed the reliability of the subfamily classification based on phylogenetic analysis.
Three-dimensional modeling was also conducted on the nine RcBURPs (Fig. 2b). All RcBURPs contained multiple α-helix and coil structures (Fig. 2b). In RcBURPs, the most predicted secondary structure was β-strand (9–36% in RcBURPs), whereas the proportion of α-helix was only 8–25%. Results from 3D modeling revealed tertiary structure similarity in these RcBURPs, indicating that they may evolve from the same ancestral sequence and/or be under purifying selection for stabilization during long-term acclimation after the initial divergence.
CRE prediction for RcBURPs
To further investigate the possible role of CREs in the promoter regions of RcBURPs, we used PlantCARE (Rombauts et al., 1998) to identify CREs in the 2000 bp upstream of the TSS in the nine RcBURPs. Based on their functions, the identified CREs were classified into four groups: abiotic stress-, light response-, phytohormone response-, and plant growth and development-related (Fig. 3a). Phytohormone-responsive CREs included nine types: ABA response elements (ABRE), auxin response elements (AuxRR-core and TGA-element), methyl jasmonate (MeJA) response elements (CGTCA-motif and TGACG-motif), gibberellin response elements (P-box, TATC-box, and GARE-motif), and SA response elements (TCA-element). CREs responding to abiotic stresses contained five groups, including TC-rich repeats (defense and stress responsiveness), MBS (drought stress), LTR (cold stress), ARE (anaerobic induction), and CCAAT-box (MYB binding site) (Fig. 3a). Additionally, six CREs were identified in terms of light response (i.e., GT1-motif, G-box, 3-AF3, Sp1, MRE, and ACE). Only a few CREs were identified to participate in plant growth and development; no CRE of this kind was found in RcBURP6. Besides, as shown in Fig. 3a, the numbers of G-box (30), ABRE (25), and ARE (24) were greater than those of other CREs. Specifically, all RcBURPs contained ARE, with the highest number of 5 in RcBURP3 and RcBURP6. Therefore, RcBURPs may participate in rose response to abiotic stresses, light, and phytohormones.
Chromosomal distribution and evolution of RcBURPs
To study the relationship between the expansion and duplication of RcBURPs, all RcBURPs were mapped onto the five chromosomes of the rose genome (Fig. 3b). Our results showed that the chromosomal distributions of RcBURPs were significantly heterogeneous, with most RcBURPs distributed in the distal regions of the chromosomes. Moreover, Chr6 contained four RcBURPs (RcBURP5, RcBURP6, RcBURP7, and RcBURP9), whereas Chr1 contained two (RcBURP1 and RcBURP2), and each of Chr4, Chr5, and Chr7 contained only one RcBURP. To explore the relationship among RcBURPs, gene duplication analysis (e.g., segmental duplication and tandem duplication) was performed by including BURPs from R. chinensis, M. domestica, and F. vesca (Fig. 3c). In R. chinensis, only one segmental duplication event between RcBURP3 and RcBURP8 was found. Six and seven homologous gene pairs were identified among R. chinensis, M. domestica, and F. vesca (Supplementary Table 4), respectively. To further exam the selection pressure in the divergence of BURPs, we calculated the Ka/Ks ratio for the orthologous gene pairs (Supplementary Table 4). The average Ka/Ks ratio was 0.28 for the 15 identified orthologous gene pairs, which suggested that BURPs across the species have undergone purifying or stabilizing selection during the evolutionary process.
Expression of RcBURPs and sequence analysis of RcBURP4
To gain insight into the expression pattern of RcBURPs under drought stress, we searched the gene expression data from our previous transcriptomic study (Li et al., 2020). Six treatments included normal conditions (ND) in leaves (NL) and roots (NR), mild drought stress (MD) in leaves (ML) and roots (MR), and severe drought stress (SD) in leaves (SL) and roots (SR). Different expression patterns were observed for the nine RcBURPs during drought stress. All RcBURPs exhibited induced expression levels in rose leaves and roots under the MD condition, while three RcBURPs (RcBURP1, RcBURP3, and RcBURP8) showed repressed expression in leaves under the SD condition. Compared with ND, RcBURP3, RcBURP5, and RcBURP7 showed lower expression levels in rose roots under the SD condition. Although subfamily BURP-V members RcBURP2 and RcBURP4 have the similar expression tendency, RcBURP4 showed higher transcript abundance under SR vs. NR, ML vs. NL, MR vs. NR, ML vs. MR, and SL vs. SR, suggesting that this gene may contribute greatly in rose response to drought stimulus. We then selected RcBURP4 for further analysis. Seven BURP-domain containing proteins of six kinds of plants sequence alignments were also performed (Fig. 4b). The results showed that highly conserved amino acids were evenly distributed, including five prolines, six phenylalanines, an arginine, three threonines, two cystines, three glycines, two glutamic acids, two serines, an aspartic acid, a histidine, two tryptophans, two valines, two lysines, an alanine, a tyrosine, and four CH motifs. The conserved C-terminal sequence of RcBURP4 can be described as CHX3YX3VX2CHX12LX4GX6AXCHX2TX2WX3HX2FX2LX3PX3PXCH.
RcBURP4 -OE Arabidopsis was susceptible to ABA during germination and growth
RcBURP4 contained six ABREs and three abiotic stress response CREs (Fig. 3a), indicating that it may contribute greatly in response to drought stimulus through the ABA-dependent pathway. Therefore, we first overexpressed RcBURP4 in A. thaliana, and three independent RcBURP4-overexpressing lines (OE#1, 2, and 3) with high expression of RcBURP4 were selected for further study (Fig. 5a). Firstly, we compared the seed germination rates of RcBURP4-OEs and VC on MS media containing different concentrations of ABA (0, 0.5, and 1.0 µM) (Fig. 5b). As shown in Fig. 5c, no significant differences were observed in seed germination rates between RcBURP4-OEs and VC without ABA treatment. However, when supplemented with 1.0 µM ABA, the germination rates of OE#1, 2, and 3 were 72.5%, 50.5%, and 39.5%, respectively, significantly lower than that of VC (94.5%). Next, to further analyze the root morphology of RcBURP4-OEs under ABA treatment, 7-day-old seedings were placed in MS media containing 0, 30, or 50 µM ABA, and incubated for 10 d (Fig. 5d). The root length increments of OE#1, 2, and 3 were 14, 10, and 9.5 mm, respectively, under 50 µM ABA treatment, which were significantly lower than that of VC (3.5 mm; Fig. 5e). Moreover, no significant difference was observed between RcBURP4-OEs and VC in terms of lateral root number (Fig. 5f). In summary, these results suggested that overexpression of RcBURP4 conferred increased ABA susceptibility in germination and post germination stages in transgenic Arabidopsis.
Overexpression of RcBURP4 decreased tolerance to salinity in Arabidopsis
To further characterize RcBURP4 function in response to abiotic stress, we investigated RcBURP4-transgenic Arabidopsis performance under salt stress. Seeds of RcBURP4-OEs were sown on MS media containing different concentrations of NaCl (0, 100, 150, and 200 mM) (Fig. 6a). The germination rate of RcBURP4-OEs (18.8–41.7%) was significantly inhibited after 150 and 200 mM NaCl treatments compared with that of VC (85–95%) (Fig. 6b). We also measured the root length increment and lateral root number of RcBURP4-OEs and VC seedlings under NaCl treatments (Fig. 6c). VC plants maintained higher root length increment under NaCl treatment than did the RcBURP4-OEs lines (Fig. 6d), and no significant difference was found between VC and RcBURP4-OEs in terms of lateral root number (Fig. 6e). Moreover, we also tested the accumulated reactive oxygen species (ROS) level of RcBURP4-OEs and VC. Both RcBURP4-OEs and VC plants showed light brown (DAB) and blue (NBT) colors under normal growth conditions. However, when supplemented with 200 mM NaCl, RcBURP4-OEs exhibited darker brown (DAB) and blue (NBT) colors than VC did (Supplementary Fig. 2). Besides, the H2O2 content (Fig. 6f) and O2− production rate (Fig. 6g) of RcBURP4-OEs were 0.16–0.23 µmol g− 1 and 0.48–0.57 nmol g− 1 min− 1, respectively, significantly higher than those of VC. The above results suggest that overexpressing RcBURP4 leaded to decreased ability of plants to scavenge ROS under salt stress.
Performance of RcBURP4-OE lines under osmotic stress
We also investigated seed germination of RcBURP4-OE lines and VC plants under PEG treatment. As shown in Fig. 7a, no significant differences were found when plants were grown without PEG6000. However, when supplemented with 12% PEG6000, the germination rates of OE#1, 2, and 3 were 67%, 63%, and 74%, significantly higher than that of VC (41%) (Fig. 7b). Additionally, after 50% PEG6000 treatment, brown and blue (Fig. 7c) colors were lighter in RcBURP4-OE lines than in VC plants. Moreover, the H2O2 content and O2− production rate of RcBURP4-OEs were 0.11–0.13 µmol g− 1 (Fig. 7d) and 0.33–0.36 nmol g− 1 min− 1, respectively (Fig. 7e), significantly lower than those of VC plants, indicating that RcBURP4-OE lines accumulated less ROS and reduced cell membrane damage under osmotic stress. Besides, RcBURP4-OEs showed higher levels of chlorophyll content (Fig. 7f) and SOD activity (Fig. 7g), but lower levels of MDA content (Fig. 7h) compared to VC plants. The above results demonstrated that RcBURP4 conferred enhanced resistance to osmotic stress in transgenic Arabidopsis.
Overexpression of RcBURP4 increased resistance to drought stress in Arabidopsis
We further examined the performance of RcBURP4-OEs and VC under drought stress. As shown in Fig. 8a, after 15-d drought stress, VC exhibited obvious symptoms of water loss (e.g., withered leaves), while a small amount of green color was observed in RcBURP4-OEs leaves. After 7-d rewatering, a fair number of RcBURP4-OE lines recovered (Fig. 8a), and the survival rates of OE#1, 2, and 3 were 75%, 62.5%, and 87.5%, respectively, significantly higher than that of VC (Fig. 8b). Additionally, changes in physiological indices including MDA content were also evaluated. Fifteen days after drought treatment, RcBURP4-OEs exhibited a significantly lower MDA content (40.1–52.6 nmol g− 1) than VC (87.7 nmol g− 1) (Fig. 8c). The water loss rate was lower in RcBURP4-OEs than in VC at the same time points (Fig. 8d). Therefore, these results suggest that the tolerance to drought stress was stronger in RcBURP4-OEs than in VC.
Expression levels of stress-responsive genes in VC and RcBURP4-OEs
To further clarify the possible mechanism of RcBURP4-OEs in response to ABA, drought and salinity. Nine stress-responsive genes, including two homologues of RcBURP4 (AtUSPL1, AtRD22), two ABA signaling genes (AtABF4, AtABI2), two drought inducible genes (AtRAB18, AtRD29A), and three salt responsive genes (AtNHX1, AtSOS1, AtSOS3) were selected. Their transcript levels were examined in VC and RcBURP4-OEs roots and leaves under normal conditions, respectively (Fig. 9). Compared with VC, the expression levels of AtRD22, AtABF4, and AtABI2 increased in RcBURP4-OEs leaf, but decreased in root. AtRD29A exhibited a higher expression level in both leaf and root of RcBURP4-OEs than VC controls. AtNHX1 and AtSOS1 expression was not expressed in leaf of VC and RcBURP4-OEs, but upregulated in roots of RcBURP4-OEs. Furthermore, the transcript level of AtSOS3 was significantly lower in leaf and root of RcBURP4-OEs than VC controls. These results indicate that overexpression of RcBURP4 in Arabidopsis may affect the expression of some stress-responsive genes, thereby resulted different phenotypes in response to abiotic stress treatments.
Silencing of RcBURP4 decreased tolerance to dehydration in rose
To further reveal the potential role of RcBURP4, we silenced the RcBURP4 expression in rose leaves using the VIGS approach. A. tumefaciens carrying TRV-RcBURP4 and TRV1 (Liu et al., 2002) were co-infiltrated into rose leaf discs to generate RcBURP4-silenced samples. The infiltrated rose leaves experienced 12-h dehydration and 24-h rehydration (Fig. 10a). Firstly, we confirmed the efficiency of VIGS with qRT-PCR. A ~ 65% decrease in the RcBURP4expression was observed in RcBURP4-silenced samples compared to the control (Fig. 10b). Comparing to the control (TRV), rose plants inoculated with TRV-RcBURP4 showed more serious withering (Fig. 10a). Furthermore, silencing of RcBURP4 resulted in significantly smaller disc areas during the 12-h dehydration, a reduction of 10.5%, compared to the TRV control (Fig. 10c). In addition, a more significant decline was observed in the fresh weight of RcBURP4-silenced discs after the 12-h rehydration compared with the TRV control (Fig. 10d). However, silencing of RcBURP4 led to a greater cell number per microscope visual area of 28% in abaxial, compared to the TRV control (Fig. 9e), indicating that silencing of RcBURP4 reduced tolerance to dehydration in rose.