title: Down-regulation of CBP80 gene expression as a strategy to engineer a drought-tolerant potato.
abstract: Developing new strategies for crop plants to respond to drought is crucial for their innovative breeding. The down-regulation of nuclear cap-binding proteins in Arabidopsis renders plants drought tolerant. The CBP80 gene in the potato cultivar Desiree was silenced using artificial microRNAs. Transgenic plants displayed a higher tolerance to drought, ABA-hypersensitive stomatal closing, an increase in leaf stomata and trichome density, and compact cuticle structures with a lower number of microchannels. These findings were correlated with a higher tolerance to water stress. The level of miR159 was decreased, and the levels of its target mRNAs MYB33 and MYB101 increased in the transgenic plants subjected to drought. Similar trends were observed in an Arabidopsis cbp80 mutant. The evolutionary conservation of CBP80, a gene that plays a role in the response to drought, suggests that it is a candidate for genetic manipulations that aim to obtain improved water-deficit tolerance of crop plants.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gene Expression, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pieczynski
authors.forename: Waldemar
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Marczewski
authors.forename: Jacek
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hennig
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dolata
authors.forename: Dawid
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bielewicz
authors.forename: Paulina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Piontek
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wyrzykowska
authors.forename: Dominika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Krusiewicz
authors.forename: Danuta
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Strzelczyk-Zyta
authors.forename: Dorota
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Konopka-Postupolska
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krzeslowska
authors.forename: Artur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jarmolowski
authors.forename: Zofia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Szweykowska-Kulinska
mesh_terms: D055864:Droughts; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins