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Elevated carbon dioxide decreases the adverse effects of higher temperature and drought stress by mitigating oxidative stress and improving water status in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Main conclusion

This study revealed that elevated carbon dioxide increases Arabidopsis tolerance to higher temperature and drought stress by mitigating oxidative stress and improving water status of plants.

Abstract

Few studies have considered multiple aspects of plant responses to key components of global climate change, including higher temperature, elevated carbon dioxide (ECO2), and drought. Hence, their individual and combinatorial effects on plants need to be investigated in the context of understanding climate change impact on plant growth and development. We investigated the interactive effects of temperature, CO2, watering regime, and genotype on Arabidopsis thaliana (WT and ABA-insensitive mutant, abi1-1). Plants were grown in controlled-environment growth chambers under two temperature regimes (22/18 °C and 28/24 °C, 16 h light/8 h dark), two CO2 concentrations (400 and 700 μmol mol−1), and two watering regimes (well-watered and water-stressed) for 18 days. Plant growth, anatomical, physiological, molecular, and hormonal responses were determined. Our study provided valuable information about plant responses to the interactive effects of multiple environmental factors. We showed that drought and ECO2 had larger effects on plants than higher temperatures. ECO2 alleviated the detrimental effects of temperature and drought by mitigating oxidative stress and plant water status, and this positive effect was consistent across multiple response levels. The WT plants performed better than the abi1-1 plants; the former had higher rosette diameter, total dry mass, leaf and soil water potential, leaf moisture, proline, ethylene, trans-zeatin, isopentyladenine, and cis-zeatin riboside than the latter. The water-stressed plants of both genotypes accumulated more abscisic acid (ABA) than the well-watered plants; however, higher temperatures decreased the ability of WT plants to produce ABA in response to drought. We conclude that drought strongly, while higher temperature to a lesser extent, affects Arabidopsis seedlings, and ECO2 reduces the adverse effects of these stressors more efficiently in the WT plants than in the abi1-1 plants. Findings from this study can be extrapolated to other plant species that share similar characteristics and/or family with Arabidopsis.

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Abbreviations

ACO2 :

Ambient CO2

Chl:

Chlorophyll

CK:

Cytokinin

ECO2 :

Elevated CO2

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada through a Discovery grant and by Mount Saint Vincent University through an Internal Research grant to MMQ. A graduate scholarship from Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan to MIAG is greatly acknowledged. We appreciate useful comments on the manuscript from two anonymous referees.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Life Science Centre, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada

    Mohammad I. Abo Gamar, Sophia L. Stone & Mirwais M. Qaderi

  2. Department of Biology, Trent University, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON, K9J 7B8, Canada

    Anna Kisiala & R. J. Neil Emery

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Edward C. Yeung

  4. Department of Biology, Mount Saint Vincent University, 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax, NS, B3M 2J6, Canada

    Mirwais M. Qaderi

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  1. Mohammad I. Abo Gamar
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Abo Gamar, M.I., Kisiala, A., Emery, R.J.N. et al. Elevated carbon dioxide decreases the adverse effects of higher temperature and drought stress by mitigating oxidative stress and improving water status in Arabidopsis thaliana. Planta 250, 1191–1214 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-019-03213-3

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