Desiccation tolerance: From genomics to the field

Spatiotemporal Seed Development Analysis Provides Insight into Primary Dormancy Induction and Evolution of theLepidium DELAY OF GERMINATION1Genes

“…2 and 7), we captured in type I infructescences stages prior to and at the onset of seed germinability until full premature germination (prior to dormancy induction), and in types II and III infructescences we captured all stages prior to, during, and after the induction of primary dormancy, including the full premature germination stage. To assign these stages to events during seed development and maturation on the molecular level, we analyzed the expression patterns of well-known marker proteins including oleosin (seed storage accumulation), EM6 (seed maturation), and dehydrin (desiccation tolerance; Close et al, 1993;Huang, 1996;Bies et al, 1998;Crowe et al, 2000;Ruuska et al, 2002;Boudet et al, 2006;Siloto et al, 2006;Leprince and Buitink, 2010). Oleosin accumulation during L. papillosum seed development was enhanced with the onset of premature germinability and early maturation in type I and II infructescences.…”

Photo-oxidation modulates green fern spore longevity during dry storage

“…The study of desiccation tolerance and longevity in the dry state in plant propagules is not only important to understand the success of plants on terrestrial Earth and the laws governing life on it, but also has implications on biotechnological applications in diverse fields such as medicine, crop improvement, and genetic diversity preservation (Leprince and Buitink 2010). During desiccation, cells of desiccation tolerant plant tissues considerably reduce their volume as the cytoplasm increases its viscosity up to a point at which it resembles a solid (Leprince and Buitink 2015;Walters 2015).…”

Synteny-based phylogenomic networks for comparative genomics

“…The concept of DT is different from drought tolerance because drought tolerance refers to the tolerance to moderate water removal without removal of the bulk of cytoplasmic water (Shih et al, 2008), while DT refers to the tolerance to a further dehydration with an increased removal of the water shell and the capacity to survive long periods in the dry state (Hoekstra et al, 2001). Understanding the mechanisms underlying DT can help to improve drought tolerance in crops (Mundree, 2002;Leprince and Buitink, 2010;Costa et al, 2017). Several crops from the grass family (Poaceae) constitutes major contributors of global food security that have become targets of genomic programs aiming at improved drought tolerance.…”

“…DT is the ability to survive the removal of almost all cellular water without irreparable damage, and it is recurrent in reproductive structures of most vascular plants (e.g. during embryogenesis), in the vegetative body of non-vascular plants and in a few angiosperms species commonly known as 'resurrection plants' (Oliver et al, 2000;Illing et al, 2005;Leprince and Buitink, 2010;Farrant and Moore, 2011;Gaff and Oliver, 2013). Several genes that are thought to be important for DT are common amongst non-vascular and vascular plants, and are also present in their ancestral streptophyte algae (Rensing et al, 2008;Wodniok et al, 2011).…”