ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Membrane Traffic and Transport
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1664009
This article is part of the Research TopicNutritional and Adaptive Aspects of Ion Transport in PlantsView all 3 articles
Characterization of Two proline-rich proteins involved in silicon deposition in Cucummis sativus
Provisionally accepted
- 1Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Xining Vegetable Technical Service Center, Xining, China
- 3Qinghai University, Xining, China
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Silicon can exert benefits on plants when they are suffering stresses, and the benefits are more obvious in high silicon accumulators. However, the molecular mechanism how silicon deposits in plants is not fully understood. This study identified the CsPRP family genes in cucumber, and analyzed their functions in cucumber silicon deposition. Seven PRP genes were identified in cucumber, of which CsPRP1 and CsPRP3 were identified as tandem duplication, CsPRP4 and CsPRP5 were identified as segmental duplication. The binding experiment of silicon showed that both CsPRP1 and CsPRP3 exhibited significant binding characteristics to silicon, but their optimal pH values were different. Transient expression of a fusion with green fluorescent protein (GFP) in onion epidermal cells revealed that CsPRP1 and CsPRP3 were specifically localized on the cell wall. Staining of ProCsPRP1::GUS and ProCsPRP3::GUS transgenic Arabidopsis demonstrated that during the seedling phase, CsPRP1 and CsPRP3 were mainly expressed in the mature leaves and roots, and in the mature phase, they were mainly expressed in the leaves, roots, petals and stamens. These results may aid further research into the biological function of cucumber PRP and the molecular mechanism of silicon deposition in cucumber.
Keywords: Silicon deposition, proline-rich protein, cucumber, biogenic silica, Silicification
Received: 11 Jul 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Gao, Kong, Jiao, Tan, Wu, He and Duan. 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: Hao Sun, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
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