Regulation of the heat shock response in soybean seedlings

Abstract

The transcriptional response of soybean (Glycine max) seedlings during heat shock (HS) was investigated under two different treatment regimes. During prolonged heat treatment at 40°C, active transcription of the HS genes (as measured by "runoff" transcription assays) occurs only during the first few hours. Nonetheless, mRNAs for these genes are present at relatively high abundance even after 9 hours of exposure to 40°C. Because HS mRNAs have a fairly short half-life (less than 3 hours) at 28°C, these results indicate that HS mRNAs are inherently more stable at 40°C. During a second type of heat treatment regime - short pulses of high (45°C) heat followed by 1 to 2 hours at 28°C-transcription of HS genes is comparable to that achieved at 40°C for the first few hours, even though the tissue is maintained at non-HS temperatures. The transcriptional responses to these two different heat treatments indicate that regulatory controls for the transcription of the HS genes must involve more than a simple sensing of ambient temperature, since transcription of these genes can be turned off at 40°C (in the case of prolonged exposure) and can continue at 28°C (following a short, severe heat treatment). Additional results demonstrate that the response of soybean seedlings to a particular HS depends on their prior exposure to heat; seedlings given a preheat treatment (that is known to induce thermotolerance) respond more moderately to a short heat pulse at 45°C. Overall, this research indicates that plants have mechanisms for both monitoring the severity of changes in temperature and for measuring the magnitude and duration of the stress. Such information is then used to regulate the plant's response to heat both transcriptionally and posttranscriptionally.