Unraveling the role of urea hydrolysis in salt stress response during seed germination and seedling growth in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

Urea is intensively utilized as a nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture, originating either from root uptake or from catabolism of arginine by arginase. Despite its extensive use, the underlying physiological mechanisms of urea, particularly its adverse effects on seed germination and seedling growth under salt stress remains unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that salt stress induces excessive hydrolysis of arginine-derived urea, leading to an increase in cytoplasmic pH within seed radical cells, which, in turn, triggers salt-induced inhibition of seed germination (SISG) and hampers seedling growth. Our findings challenge the long-held belief that ammonium accumulation and toxicity are the primary causes of SISG, offering a novel perspective on the mechanism underlying these processes. This study provides significant insights into the physiological impact of urea hydrolysis under salt stress, contributing to a better understanding of SISG.

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Figure 2 - supplement 1 - source data contain the sequences for double mutants argah1/argah2.Figure 7 - supplement 1 - source data contain the original files of the full raw unedited gels of gene expression.

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Yuanyuan Bu

Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China

For correspondence
yuanyuanbu@nefu.edu.cn

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-7133-613X
Xingye Dong

Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Rongrong Zhang

Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Xianglian Shen

Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Yan Liu

Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Vegetation Ecology Restoration, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Shu Wang

Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou, China

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Tetsuo Takano

Asian Natural Environmental Science Center (ASNESC), University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Shenkui Liu

Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou, China

For correspondence
shenkuiliu@nefu.edu.cn

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Funding

Heilongjiang Provinve Goverment Postdoctoral Science Foundation (LBH-Q18008)

Yuanyuan Bu

Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT17R99)

Shenkui Liu

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.