Arabidopsis Assists Sugarcane in Battle with Drought
April 10, 2014| |
Drought has always been a major abiotic factor affecting sugarcane production. Yield losses caused by drought have been known to reach nearly 50%. The transcription factor (TF) DREB2A activates the expression of downstream genes involved in abiotic stress response in plants. DREB2A expression can be induced either by dehydration, salinity or heat shock.
A study explored the effects of stress-inducible over-expression of the transcription factor AtDREB2A CA, from Arabidopsis thaliana, on the gene expression, leaf water potential, relative water content (RWC) and sucrose content of sugarcane plants treated to a four-day water deficit treatment.
The expression of AtDREB2A CA led to up-regulation of genes involved in plant response to drought stress. These plants maintained high RWC and leaf water potential over 4 days of water-deficit and also had higher photosynthetic rates until the 3rd day. It also increased sucrose levels and improved bud sprouting in the transgenic sugarcane. These results indicate that expression of AtDREB2A CA in transgenic sugarcane enhanced its drought tolerance without significant biomass loss.
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