A Soybean bZIP Transcription Factor GmbZIP19 Confers Multiple Biotic and Abiotic Stress Responses in Plant

The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) is a plant-specific transcription factor family that plays crucial roles in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, little is known about the function of bZIP genes in soybean. In this study, we isolated a bZIP gene, , from soybean. A subcellular localization study of revealed its nucleus localization. We showed that expression was significantly induced by ABA (abscisic acid), JA (jasmonic acid) and SA (salicylic acid), but reduced under salt and drought stress conditions. Further, overexpression lines showed increased resistance to and associated with upregulated ABA-, JA-, ETH- (ethephon-)and SA-induced marker genes expression, but exhibited sensitivity to salt and drought stresses in association with destroyed stomatal closure and downregulated the salt and drought stresses marker genes' expression. We generated a soybean transient overexpression line, performed a Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay and found that GmbZIP19 bound to promoters of ABA-, JA-, ETH-, and SA-induced marker genes in soybean. The yeast one-hybrid verified the combination. The current study suggested that is a positive regulator of pathogen resistance and a negative regulator of salt and drought stress tolerance.