Transcriptome analysis of Arabidopsis mutants suggests a crosstalk between ABA, ethylene and GSH against combined cold and osmotic stress

The involvement of ethylene and abscisic acid in providing stress tolerance and defence response to plants is widely recognized. However, little is known about the cross-talk between glutathione with ethylene and abscisic acid to combat stress in planta. Here, transcriptome analysis of combined cold and osmotic stress treated Arabidopsis mutants were carried out to elucidate the crosstalk between the abscisic acid, ethylene and glutathione. Microarray experiment revealed the differential regulation of about 2313 and 4131 transcripts in ein2 (ethylene insensitive mutant) and aba1.6 (abscisic acid mutant) respectively. Functional analysis exposed common down-regulated stress and defence, secondary metabolite biosynthesis viz. phenylpropanoid, lignin and flavonols, redox and transcription factors related genes in ein2, aba1.6 and pad2.1 (glutathione mutant) in response to combined stress treatment. The reduced glutathione content was less in stress treated mutants in comparison to Col-0. Again, selective down-regulated transcripts in stress treated mutants were noted up-regulated after glutathione feeding. Some of the important differentially expressed genes were also validated by comparative proteomics analysis of stress treated mutants. In summary, our results suggested the role of ethylene and abscisic acid in inducing stress-responsive genes and proteins by activating glutathione biosynthesis to combat abiotic stress conditions in plant system.