A PIP-mediated osmotic stress signaling cascade plays a positive role in the salt tolerance of sugarcane

BACKGROUND: Plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs) are plant channel proteins involved in water deficit and salinity tolerance. PIPs play a major role in plant cell water balance and responses to salt stress. Although sugarcane is prone to high salt stress, there is no report on PIPs in sugarcane. RESULTS: In the present study, eight PIP family genes, termed ScPIP1–1, ScPIP1–2, ScPIP1–3, ScPIP1–4, ScPIP2–1, ScPIP2–2, ScPIP2–4 and ScPIP2–5, were obtained based on the sugarcane transcriptome database. Then, ScPIP2–1 in sugarcane was cloned and characterized. Confocal microscopy observation indicated that ScPIP2–1 was located in the plasma membrane and cytoplasm. A yeast two-hybridization experiment revealed that ScPIP2–1 does not have transcriptional activity. Real time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis showed that ScPIP2–1 was mainly expressed in the leaf, root and bud, and its expression levels in both below- and aboveground tissues of ROC22 were up-regulated by abscisic acid (ABA), polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 and sodium chloride (NaCl) stresses. The chlorophyll content and ion leakage measurement suggested that ScPIP2–1 played a significant role in salt stress resistance in Nicotiana benthamiana through the transient expression test. Overexpression of ScPIP2–1 in Arabidopsis thaliana proved that this gene enhanced the salt tolerance of transgenic plants at the phenotypic (healthier state, more stable relative water content and longer root length), physiologic (more stable ion leakage, lower malondialdehyde content, higher proline content and superoxide dismutase activity) and molecular levels (higher expression levels of AtKIN2, AtP5CS1, AtP5CS2, AtDREB2, AtRD29A, AtNHX1, AtSOS1 and AtHKT1 genes and a lower expression level of the AtTRX5 gene). CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that the ScPIP2–1-mediated osmotic stress signaling cascade played a positive role in plant response to salt stress. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-021-03369-9.