Insights into B-type RR members as signaling partners acting downstream of HPt partners of HK1 in the osmotic stress response in Populus

•Poplar B-type RR18 was isolated under osmotic stressed conditions.•RR18 interacts with the preferential HPt partners of HK1.•RR13 and RR18 behave as osmotic stress response genes.•Early stimulation of RR13 expression was observed mainly in roots of poplar cuttings.•Late stimulation of RR18 expression was observed mainly in leaves of poplar cuttings.

The B-type response regulators (B-type RRs), final elements of a signaling pathway called “histidine/aspartate phosphorelay system” in plants, are devoted to the regulation of response genes through a transcription factor activity. Signal transduction consists in the transfer of a phosphoryl group from a transmembrane histidine kinase (HK) which recognizes a given stimulus to nuclear RRs via cytosolic shuttle phosphotransfer proteins (HPts). In Arabidopsis, the receptors HK are to date the major characterized candidates to be responsible for initiation of osmotic stress responses. However, little information is available concerning the signaling partners acting downstream of HKs. In Populus, three HPts and five B-type RRs were previously identified as interacting partners of HK1, the Arabidopsis AHK1 homolog. Here, we report the isolation of RR18, a member of the B-type RR family, which shares high sequence similarities with ARR18 characterized to act in the osmosensing signaling pathway in Arabidopsis, from poplar cuttings subjected to osmotic stress conditions. By using yeast and in planta interaction assays, RR18 was further identified as acting downstream of HK1 and its three preferential HPt partners. Besides, our results are in favor of a possible involvement of both RR18 and RR13, the main expressed poplar B-type RR, in the osmotic signaling pathway. Nonetheless, different behaviors of these two B-type RRs in this pathway need to be noted, with one RR, RR13, acting in an early phase, mainly in roots of poplar cuttings, and the other one, RR18, acting in a late phase, mainly in leaves to supply an adequate response.