Expression of cotton PLATZ1 in transgenic Arabidopsis reduces sensitivity to osmotic and salt stress for germination and seedling establishment associated with modification of the abscisic acid, gibberellin, and ethylene signalling pathways

BACKGROUND: Zinc-finger transcription factors play central roles in plant growth, development and abiotic stress responses. PLATZ encodes a class of plant-specific zinc-finger transcription factor. However, biological functions or physiological mechanism controlled by PLATZ are currently limited. RESULTS: GhPLATZ1 transcripts were considerably up-regulated by NaCl, mannitol, abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellin (GA) treatments. Transgenic Arabidopsis by ectopic expression of GhPLATZ1 exhibited faster seed germination and higher seedling establishment under salt and mannitol stresses than those of wild type (WT), indicating enhanced osmotic insensitivity in GhPLATZ1 transgenic Arabidopsis. The ABA content in dry seeds of GhPLATZ1 transgenic Arabidopsis was lower than that of WT whereas the ABA content was not changed in germinating seeds under salt stress. Seed germination was faster than but the seedling establishment of transgenic Arabidopsis was similar to WT. Besides, GhPLATZ1 transgenic and WT Arabidopsis exhibited insensitivity to paclobutrazol (PAC), a GA biosynthesis inhibitor, whereas exogenous GA could eliminate the growth difference between GhPLATZ1 transgenic and WT Arabidopsis under salt stress. Moreover, exogenous 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), an ethylene precursor, exerted similar effects to GA. Furthermore, ABI4 and ETO1 transcripts were significantly down-regulated, whereas ACS8 was up-regulated in GhPLATZ1 transgenic Arabidopsis under salt stress. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, GhPLATZ1 had broad influence in responses to salt and mannitol stresses in transgenic Arabidopsis during seed germination and seedling establishment. The effect of GhPLATZ1 expression in transgenic Arabidopsis might be mediated by the ABA, GA, and ethylene pathways. Thus, this study provided new insights into the regulatory network in response to abiotic stresses in plants. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1416-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.