Abstract
Soil salinization is a significant environmental stress factor, threatening global agricultural yield and ecological security. Plants must effectively cope with the adverse effects of salt stress on survival and successful reproduction. Lateral Organ Boundaries (LOB) Domain (LBD) genes, a gene family encoding plant-specific transcription factors (TFs), play important roles in plant growth and development. Here, we identified and functionally characterized the LBD family TF PtrLBD41 from Populus trichocarpa, which can be induced by various abiotic stresses, including salt, dehydration, low temperature, and Abscisic Acid (ABA). Meanwhile, transgenic plants overexpressing PtrLBD41 showed a better phenotype and higher tolerance than the wild-type (WT) plants under salt stress treatment. Transcriptome analysis found that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the WT and overexpression (OE) line were enriched in the flavonoid biosynthetic process, in which chalcone synthases (CHS), naringenin 3-dioxygenase (F3H), and chalcone isomerase (CHI) were significantly up-regulated under salt stress conditions through qRT-PCR analysis. Therefore, we demonstrate that PtrLBD41 plays an important role in the tolerance to salt stress in P. trichocarpa.