ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1590484
This article is part of the Research TopicMulti-Omics Strategies for Salinity and Drought Stress Mitigation in AgricultureView all 4 articles
Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of Proline Synthesis and Catabolism Genes in Kiwifruit: Exploring the Role of AcP5CS1 in Salt Tolerance
Provisionally accepted
Jun Yang1,2
Cheng Qian1,2Can Chen1,2Guoqi Liu1,2Xiaowei Zhen1,2
Quaid Hussain3
Shiheng Lyu4Chengcheng Ling1,2*- 1Bengbu University, Bengbbu, China
- 2College of Food and Bioengineering, Bengbu, China
- 3College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
- 4State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China
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The regulation of proline metabolism is critical for enhancing plant stress tolerance by promoting proline accumulation under abiotic stress conditions. Key enzymes in this pathway include Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthase (P5CS), pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase (P5CR), ornithine δaminotransferase (δ-OAT), proline dehydrogenase (PDH), and pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase (P5CDH). Despite their importance, comprehensive identification and characterization of these gene families in kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) remain unexplored. This study identified two AcP5CSs, one AcP5CR, one AcOAT, three AcPDHs, and one AcP5CDH within the kiwifruit genome and observed that most genes demonstrate stable exon-intron. This research comprehensively examined phylogenetic tree, gene structure, motif analysis, cis-regulatory elements and chromosomal distributions analysis, as well as expression profiles under abiotic stresses and hormonal stress. Cis-regulatory element analysis of promoter regions revealed abundant stress-responsive motifs, including those linked to light, phytohormones, and abiotic stress, suggesting their regulatory roles in stress adaptation. Under salt stress, transcriptional profiling showed marked upregulation of AcP5CS1, AcP5CR, and AcOAT, while AcP5CDH was significantly suppressed, as confirmed by qRT-PCR. Functional analysis demonstrated that AcP5CS1 overexpression in Arabidopsis significantly enhanced salt tolerance.Mechanistic studies using dual-luciferase and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA) confirmed that AcNAC30 directly binds to the AcP5CS1 promoter. These findings elucidate the genomic architecture of proline metabolic genes in kiwifruit and establish their pivotal role in mediating abiotic stress tolerance.
Keywords: Kiwifruit, proline metabolism, AcP5CS1, Transcriptional regulation, abiotic stress
Received: 09 Mar 2025; Accepted: 29 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, Qian, Chen, Liu, Zhen, Hussain, Lyu and Ling. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chengcheng Ling, Bengbu University, Bengbbu, China
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