title: Drought-inducible expression of Hv-miR827 enhances drought tolerance in transgenic barley.
abstract: Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses reducing crop yield. Since the discovery of plant microRNAs (miRNAs), considerable progress has been made in clarifying their role in plant responses to abiotic stresses, including drought. miR827 was previously reported to confer drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis. We examined barley (Hordeum vulgare L. 'Golden Promise') plants over-expressing miR827 for plant performance under drought. Transgenic plants constitutively expressing CaMV-35S::Ath-miR827 and drought-inducible Zm-Rab17::Hv-miR827 were phenotyped by non-destructive imaging for growth and whole plant water use efficiency (WUEwp). We observed that the growth, WUEwp, time to anthesis and grain weight of transgenic barley plants expressing CaMV-35S::Ath-miR827 were negatively affected in both well-watered and drought-treated growing conditions compared with the wild-type plants. In contrast, transgenic plants over-expressing Zm-Rab17::Hv-miR827 showed improved WUEwpwith no growth or reproductive timing change compared with the wild-type plants. The recovery of Zm-Rab17::Hv-miR827 over-expressing plants also improved following severe drought stress. Our results suggest that Hv-miR827 has the potential to improve the performance of barley under drought and that the choice of promoter to control the timing and specificity of miRNA expression is critical.
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, Plant Genomics Centre, Hartley Grove, Urrbrae, Adelaide, South Australia, 5064, Australia.|School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, PMB1, Glen Osmond, SA, 5064, Australia.
authors.forename: Jannatul
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ferdous
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, Plant Genomics Centre, Hartley Grove, Urrbrae, Adelaide, South Australia, 5064, Australia.|School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, PMB1, Glen Osmond, SA, 5064, Australia.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Whitford
authors.affiliation: Phenomics and Bioinformatics Research Centre, School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA, 5095, Australia.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Phenomics and Bioinformatics Research Centre, School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA, 5095, Australia.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brien
authors.affiliation: School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, PMB1, Glen Osmond, SA, 5064, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Langridge
authors.affiliation: Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, Plant Genomics Centre, Hartley Grove, Urrbrae, Adelaide, South Australia, 5064, Australia. penny.tricker@acpfg.com.au.|School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, The University of Adelaide, PMB1, Glen Osmond, SA, 5064, Australia. penny.tricker@acpfg.com.au.
authors.forename: Penny J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Tricker
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D055864:Droughts; D001467:Hordeum / Q000235:genetics*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified
keywords: Ath-miR827; Hv-miR827; Non-destructive imaging; Promoter