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The wall-associated kinase (WAK) multigene family plays critical roles in various cellular processes and stress responses in plants, however, whether WAKs are involved in salt tolerance is obscure. Herein, we report the functional characterization of a rice WAK, WAK112, whose expression is suppressed by salt. Overexpression of OsWAK112 in rice and heterologous expression of OsWAK112 in Arabidopsis significantly decreased plant survival under conditions of salt stress, while knocking down the OsWAK112 in rice increased plant survival under salt stress. OsWAK112 is universally expressed in plant and associated with cell wall. Meanwhile, in vitro kinase assays and salt tolerance analyses showed that OsWAK112 possesses kinase activity and that it plays a negative role in the response of plants to salt stress. In addition, OsWAK112 interacts with S-adenosyl-L-methionine synthetase (SAMS) 1/2/3, which catalyzes SAM synthesis from ATP and L-methionine, and promotes OsSAMS1 degradation under salt stress. Furthermore, in OsWAK112-overexpressing plants, there is a decreased SAMS content and a decreased ethylene content under salt stress. These results indicate that OsWAK112 negatively regulates plant salt responses by inhibiting ethylene production, possibly via direct binding with OsSAMS1/2/3.

We previously reported the involvement of cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel 6 (CNGC6) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in plant responses to heat shock (HS). To demonstrate their relationship with plant thermotolerance, we assessed the effect of HS on several groups of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings: wild-type, cngc6 mutant, and its complementation line. Under exposure to HS, the level of H2O2 was lower in the cngc6 mutant seedlings than in the wild-type (WT) seedlings but obviously increased in the complementation line. The treatment of Arabidopsis seeds with calcium ions (Ca2+) increased the H2O2 levels in the seedlings under HS treatment, whereas treatment with a Ca2+ chelator (EGTA) inhibited it, indicating that CNGC6 may stimulate the accumulation of H2O2 in a manner dependent on an increase in cytosolic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]cyt). This point was verified by phenotypic observations and thermotolerance testing with transgenic plants overexpressing AtRbohB and AtRbohD (two genes involved in HS-responsive H2O2 production), respectively, in a cngc6 background. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions and Western blotting suggested that CNGC6 enhanced the gene transcription of HS factors (HSFs) and the accumulation of HS proteins (HSPs) via H2O2. These upon results indicate that H2O2 acts downstream of CNGC6 in the HS signaling pathway, increasing our understanding of the initiation of plants responses to high temperatures.