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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.

Sec. Plant Physiology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1671817

StACS3-Mediated Drought Stress Adaptation in Potato Involves Interactions with StPP2C2 and 14-3-3 Proteins

Provisionally accepted
Sadia  HameraSadia Hamera1*Safee  Ullah ChaudharySafee Ullah Chaudhary2Heiko  LemckeHeiko Lemcke3Martin  SklorzMartin Sklorz1Florian  SchillingFlorian Schilling1Christina  SchumacherChristina Schumacher1Jana  HuckaufJana Huckauf1Ralf  ZimmermanRalf Zimmerman1Renate  HornRenate Horn1*Ralf  UptmoorRalf Uptmoor4*
  • 1University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany
  • 2Lahore University of Management Sciences Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering, Lahore, Pakistan
  • 3Universitatsmedizin Rostock, Rostock, Germany
  • 4Universitat Rostock Agrar- und Umweltwissenschaftliche Fakultat, Rostock, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Ethylene plays a critical role in plant development and stress adaptation, with its biosynthesis tightly regulated by the stability of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid synthase (ACS) proteins. Here, we investigate the potato isozyme StACS3 and its role in modulating ethylene biosynthesis and drought tolerance. StACS3 transcript and protein levels are specifically upregulated under drought stress. In contrast, silencing StACS3 significantly reduces stress-induced ethylene accumulation and enhances drought resilience, including decreased cell death and increased antioxidant activity. Heterologous expression of StACS3 in Arabidopsis thaliana induces severe developmental phenotypes, such as compact growth, reduced root development, sterility, and accelerated leaf senescence, demonstrating its influence on ethylene-associated processes. Mechanistically, StACS3 is regulated post-translationally through interactions with StPP2C2, a type 2C protein phosphatase that promotes proteasome-mediated degradation, and St14-3-3, a phospho-binding protein that stabilizes StACS3. Mutation and co-expression analysis support the formation of StACS3-StPP2C2 complexes, and silencing StPP2C2 increases StACS3 accumulation and alters its subcellular localization, demonstrating an antagonistic interplay between degradation and stabilization pathways. Collectively, these findings reveal a dynamic post-translational regulatory module that fine-tunes ethylene biosynthesis during drought stress. This study establishes StACS3 as a central node in ethylene-mediated drought response pathways in potatoes, providing mechanistic insights into the balance of protein degradation and stabilization that underlies stress adaptation.

Keywords: Solanum tuberosum, Drought stress, Ethylene biogenesis, Phosphorylation, ACC synthase, PP2C phosphatase, 14-3-3 protein

Received: 23 Jul 2025; Accepted: 09 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Hamera, Chaudhary, Lemcke, Sklorz, Schilling, Schumacher, Huckauf, Zimmerman, Horn and Uptmoor. 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:
Sadia Hamera, hamera2010@gmail.com
Renate Horn, renate.horn@uni-rostock.de
Ralf Uptmoor, ralf.uptmoor@uni-rostock.de

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