Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology and Center of Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 300 Fenglin Road, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Laboratory of Structural Sciences, Center for Structural Biology and Drug Discovery, Van Andel Research Institute, 333 Bostwick Ave., N.E., Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, USA.
Nat Commun. 2017 Oct 30;8(1):1183. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01239-3.
Drought stress is a major threat to crop production, but effective methods to mitigate the adverse effects of drought are not available. Here, we report that adding fluorine atoms in the benzyl ring of the abscisic acid (ABA) receptor agonist AM1 optimizes its binding to ABA receptors by increasing the number of hydrogen bonds between the compound and the surrounding amino acid residues in the receptor ligand-binding pocket. The new chemicals, known as AMFs, have long-lasting effects in promoting stomatal closure and inducing the expression of stress-responsive genes. Application of AMFs or transgenic overexpression of the receptor PYL2 in Arabidopsis and soybean plants confers increased drought resistance. The greatest increase in drought resistance is achieved when AMFs are applied to the PYL2-overexpression transgenic plants. Our results demonstrate that the combining of potent chemicals with transgenic overexpression of an ABA receptor is very effective in helping plants combat drought stress.
干旱胁迫是作物生产的主要威胁，但目前尚无有效方法来减轻干旱的不利影响。在这里，我们报告说，在脱落酸（ABA）受体激动剂 AM1 的苄基环中添加氟原子，通过增加化合物与受体配体结合口袋中周围氨基酸残基之间氢键的数量，优化了其与 ABA 受体的结合。这些新的化学物质被称为 AMFs，它们在促进气孔关闭和诱导应激响应基因的表达方面具有持久的效果。在拟南芥和大豆植物中应用 AMFs 或过表达受体 PYL2 可增强抗旱性。当 AMFs 应用于 PYL2 过表达转基因植物时，抗旱性的提高最大。我们的结果表明，将有效化学物质与 ABA 受体的转基因过表达相结合，对于帮助植物抵御干旱胁迫非常有效。
