Overexpression of PYL5 in rice enhances drought tolerance, inhibits growth, and modulates gene expression.
Abscisic acid (ABA) is a phytohormone that plays important roles in the regulation of seed dormancy and adaptation to abiotic stresses. Previous work identified OsPYL/RCARs as functional ABA receptors regulating ABA-dependent gene expression in Oryza sativa. OsPYL/RCARs thus are considered to be good candidate genes for improvement of abiotic stress tolerance in crops. This work demonstrates that the cytosolic ABA receptor OsPYL/RCAR5 in O. sativa functions as a positive regulator of abiotic stress-responsive gene expression. The constitutive expression of OsPYL/RCAR5 in rice driven by the Zea mays ubiquitin promoter induced the expression of many stress-responsive genes even under normal growth conditions and resulted in improved drought and salt stress tolerance in rice. However, it slightly reduced plant height under paddy field conditions and severely reduced total seed yield. This suggests that, although exogenous expression of OsPYL/RCAR5 is able to improve abiotic stress tolerance in rice, fine regulation of its expression will be required to avoid deleterious effects on agricultural traits.
Molecular Breeding Division, National Academy of Agricultural Science, RDA, Suwon 441-707, Republic of Korea.
Hyunmi
H
Kim
Kyeyoon
K
Lee
Hyunsik
H
Hwang
Nikita
N
Bhatnagar
Dool-Yi
DY
Kim
In Sun
IS
Yoon
Myung-Ok
MO
Byun
Sun Tae
ST
Kim
Ki-Hong
KH
Jung
Beom-Gi
BG
Kim
D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D055864:Droughts; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects; D063990:Gene Ontology; D012275:Oryza / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D009997:Osmotic Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D010641:Phenotype; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D019655:Quantitative Trait, Heritable; D055049:Salt Tolerance / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics
D010940:Plant Proteins; D000040:Abscisic Acid
ABA receptors; drought stress; rice; salt stress.