Improving plant drought tolerance and growth under water limitation through combinatorial engineering of signalling networks

Abstract

Agriculture is by far the biggest water consumer on our planet, accounting for 70 per cent of all freshwater withdrawals. Climate change and a growing world population increase pressure on agriculture to use water more efficiently ('more crop per drop'). Water-use efficiency (WUE) and drought tolerance of crops are complex traits that are determined by many physiological processes whose interplay is not well understood. Here, we describe a combinatorial engineering approach to optimize signalling networks involved in the control of stress tolerance. Screening a large population of combinatorially transformed plant lines, we identified a combination of calcium-dependent protein kinase genes that confers enhanced drought stress tolerance and improved growth under water-limiting conditions. Targeted introduction of this gene combination into plants increased plant survival under drought and enhanced growth under waterlimited conditions. Our work provides an efficient strategy for engineering complex signalling networks to improve plant performance under adverse environmental conditions, which does not depend on prior understanding of network function.

Isoprene Emission Influences the Proteomic Profile of Arabidopsis Plants under Well-Watered and Drought-Stress Conditions

“…The proteomic analysis did not reveal significant variations in the abundance of the classical drought-related molecular chaperones and enzymes involved in drought signaling, ROS scavenging, and hormone synthesis, as reported elsewhere [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. This may indicate that our plants experienced a mild stress compared to those activating the proteome in other experiments.…”

Calcium-dependent protein kinase 29 modulates PIN-FORMED polarity and Arabidopsis development via its own phosphorylation code

“…CPK29 expression is induced by salt stress, and CPK29 was shown to phosphorylate the N-terminus of TPK1 in vitro ( Latz et al, 2013 ), which, however, requires in vivo confirmation due to different subcellular localizations between CPK29 (PM) and TPK1 (vacuolar tonoplast). When co-expressed with CPK28 under a constitutive promoter, CPK29 and CPK28 enhanced drought tolerance of Arabidopsis plants, though the expression of every single gene showed no prominent effect ( Schulz et al, 2021 ).…”

Crop Root Responses to Drought Stress: Molecular Mechanisms, Nutrient Regulations, and Interactions with Microorganisms in the Rhizosphere

“…Plant hormones play important roles in roots through interactions between hormones and with metabolites. Abscisic acid (ABA) serves as a root-generated signal to regulate the opening of stomata and wilting of leaves in the upper parts of crops to resist water-deficit stress, providing a theoretical basis for improving water-use efficiency (WUE) by regulating water deficiency status in the rhizosphere [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. It is one of the most studied plant hormones in recent years, especially for its regulatory roles in roots [ 26 , 27 ] and interactions with other hormones [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”