GsERF enhances aluminum tolerance through an ethylene-mediated pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana

The ethylene response factor (ERF) transcription factor is a subfamily of AP2/ERF superfamily in plants, which plays multiple roles in plant growth and development as well as stress response. In this study, we found that the GsERF gene from BW69 line of wild soybean held a constitutive expression pattern and induced by aluminum stress with more transcripts in soybean root. The putative GsERF protein containing an AP2 domain was in the nucleus and transactivation activity. In addition, the overexpression of the GsERF gene enhanced root relative length rate in Arabidopsis and shallow staining by hematoxylin under the treatments of AlCl3. The ethylene synthesis related genes such as ACS4, ACS5 and ACS6 are upregulated in the GsERF overexpressed plants than those in wild type plants under the treatment of AlCl3. Furthermore, expression levels of stress/ABA-responsive marker genes, including ABI1, ABI2, ABI4, ABI5, RD29B and RD22 in transgenic lines compared with those in wild type Arabidopsis were affected by AlCl3 treatments. Taken together, the results indicate that overexpression of GsERF may enhance aluminum tolerance through an ethylene-mediated pathway and/or ABA signaling pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana.