Arabidopsis PED2 positively modulates plant drought stress resistance

Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important phytohormone that functions in seed germination, plant development, and multiple stress responses. Arabidopsis Peroxisome defective 2 (AtPED2) (also known as AtPEXOXIN14, AtPEX14), is involved in the intracellular transport of thiolase from the cytosol to glyoxysomes, and perosisomal matrix protein import in plants. In this study, we assigned a new role for AtPED2 in drought stress resistance. The transcript level of AtPED2 was downregulated by ABA and abiotic stress treatments. AtPED2 knockout mutants were insensitive to ABA-mediated seed germination, primary root elongation, and stomatal response, while AtPED2 over-expressing plants were sensitive to ABA in comparison to wide type (WT). AtPED2 also positively regulated drought stress resistance, as evidenced by the changes of water loss rate, electrolyte leakage, and survival rate. Notably, AtPED2 positively modulated expression of several stress-responsive genes (RAB18, RD22, RD29A, and RD29B), positively affected underlying antioxidant enzyme activities and negatively regulated reactive oxygen species (ROS) level under drought stress conditions. Moreover, multiple carbon metabolites including amino acids, organic acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, and aromatic amines were also positively regulated by AtPED2. Taken together, these results indicated a positive role for AtPED2 in drought resistance, through modulation of stress-responsive genes expression, ROS metabolism, and metabolic homeostasis, at least partially.