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Review
. 2023 Jan 4:13:1083960.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1083960. eCollection 2022.

The intertwining of Zn-finger motifs and abiotic stress tolerance in plants: Current status and future prospects

Debojyoti Moulick  1 , Karma Landup Bhutia  2 , Sukamal Sarkar  3 , Anirban Roy  3 , Udit Nandan Mishra  4 , Biswajit Pramanick  5   6 , Sagar Maitra  7 , Tanmoy Shankar  7 , Swati Hazra  8 , Milan Skalicky  9 , Marian Brestic  9   10 , Viliam Barek  11 , Akbar Hossain  12
Affiliations
Review

The intertwining of Zn-finger motifs and abiotic stress tolerance in plants: Current status and future prospects

Debojyoti Moulick et al. Front Plant Sci. .

Abstract

Environmental stresses such as drought, high salinity, and low temperature can adversely modulate the field crop's ability by altering the morphological, physiological, and biochemical processes of the plants. It is estimated that about 50% + of the productivity of several crops is limited due to various types of abiotic stresses either presence alone or in combination (s). However, there are two ways plants can survive against these abiotic stresses; a) through management practices and b) through adaptive mechanisms to tolerate plants. These adaptive mechanisms of tolerant plants are mostly linked to their signalling transduction pathway, triggering the action of plant transcription factors and controlling the expression of various stress-regulated genes. In recent times, several studies found that Zn-finger motifs have a significant function during abiotic stress response in plants. In the first report, a wide range of Zn-binding motifs has been recognized and termed Zn-fingers. Since the zinc finger motifs regulate the function of stress-responsive genes. The Zn-finger was first reported as a repeated Zn-binding motif, comprising conserved cysteine (Cys) and histidine (His) ligands, in Xenopus laevis oocytes as a transcription factor (TF) IIIA (or TFIIIA). In the proteins where Zn2+ is mainly attached to amino acid residues and thus espousing a tetrahedral coordination geometry. The physical nature of Zn-proteins, defining the attraction of Zn-proteins for Zn2+, is crucial for having an in-depth knowledge of how a Zn2+ facilitates their characteristic function and how proteins control its mobility (intra and intercellular) as well as cellular availability. The current review summarized the concept, importance and mechanisms of Zn-finger motifs during abiotic stress response in plants.

Keywords: Zn-finger proteins; abiotic stresses; gene signalling ABA - abscisic acid; mechanisms; plants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
C2H2 zinc finger proteins are involved in plant stress responses. Source: (Liu et al., 2022).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Some important Zinc Finger Proteins (ZNPs) involved in abiotic stress factors of the plants (1st order of the hierarchy is the name of the crop/plant, 2nd order is the type of the protein and 3rd order is the name of the ZNPs) (Source: Modified after Noman et al. (2019) with the permission from the Elsevier Rights Links (https://s100.copyright.com/), Licence No.: 5371200779212, Dated 17th August 2022).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The signalling pathways of zinc finger proteins during abiotic stress response in plants. Note: The lines marked as solid indicate regulation, and the dashed lines indicate putatively. The C2H2 zinc finger proteins are SCOF-1, ZFP245, ZFP179, AZF1/2/3, ZFP36, IbZFP1, OsZFP213, ZAT4, DST, ZAT10/STZ, ZAT12, ZAT7 and ZAT6. Source: (Liu et al., 2022).
Figure 4
Figure 4
ABA-independent pathways for cold-tolerance by C2H2 Zn-finger proteins. Note: Zn-finger proteins also regulate the several pathways of plants under heat-induced stresses. Huang et al. (2008) found A20/AN1-type Zn-finger proteins in japonica rice regulating the heat-induced stresses in the plants. Moreover, they reported that Zn-finger protein, ZFP177 was responsive to heat stress tolerance in plants. Overexpression of Zn-finger protein, ZFP177, is also responsible for the heat tolerance in tobacco plants (Mukhopadhyay et al., 2004).
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