Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Plant Biol (Stuttg). 2023 Oct;25(6):956-964. doi: 10.1111/plb.13568. Epub 2023 Sep 2.
Global climate change is causing more frequent and severe droughts, which can have negative impacts on plant growth and crop productivity. Under drought conditions, plants produce the hormone ABA (abscisic acid), which regulates adaptive responses, such as stomatal closure and root elongation. Plant viruses have been used in the lab to convey new traits to plants and could also be used to increase production of ABA or to enhance downstream plant drought resistance responses. In this study, foxtail mosaic virus (FoMV) was used to silence ZmPP2C-A10, a negative regulator of ABA signalling, in maize (Zea mays L.). Both silenced and control plants were exposed to an 8-day drought treatment, followed by a 30-day period of rewatering, after which indicators of drought resistance were measured. After drought treatment, we observed a nearly twofold increase in expression of a stress-mitigation gene, ZmRAB17, reduced chlorophyll fluorescence changes (indicator of stress), and increased plant biomass and development in the ZmPP2C-A10-silenced maize compared to controls. These results demonstrate that the FoMV system can be used to silence endogenous expression of ZmPP2C-A10 and increase maize tolerance to drought. This could offer a useful tool to improve crop traits and reduce yield loss during the growing season.
全球气候变化导致干旱更加频繁和严重，这可能对植物生长和作物生产力产生负面影响。在干旱条件下，植物会产生激素 ABA（脱落酸），调节适应反应，如气孔关闭和根伸长。植物病毒已在实验室中用于向植物传递新性状，也可用于增加 ABA 的产生或增强植物对干旱的下游抗性反应。在这项研究中，使用了谷子花叶病毒（FoMV）来沉默玉米（Zea mays L.）中 ABA 信号的负调节剂 ZmPP2C-A10。沉默和对照植物都暴露在 8 天的干旱处理中，然后进行 30 天的复水，之后测量抗旱性指标。在干旱处理后，我们观察到应激缓解基因 ZmRAB17 的表达增加了近两倍，叶绿素荧光变化（应激指标）减少，以及在与对照相比，沉默 ZmPP2C-A10 的玉米中植物生物量和发育增加。这些结果表明，FoMV 系统可用于沉默内源 ZmPP2C-A10 的表达并提高玉米对干旱的耐受性。这为改善作物性状和减少生长季节的产量损失提供了有用的工具。
