Journal
PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL
Volume 10, Issue 7, Pages 815-825Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7652.2012.00701.x
Keywords
HD-Zip transcription factors HaHB1 and AtHB13; abiotic stress; drought and salt tolerance; pathogenesis-related proteins; membrane stabilization
Funding
- ANPCyT [PICT-PAE 37100, PICT 2008 1206]
- UNL
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Transgenic approaches to conferring tolerance to abiotic stresses have mostly resulted in some degree of plant yield penalty under normal or mild stress conditions. Recently, we have reported that the homeodomain-leucine zipper transcription factors (TFs) HaHB1 and AtHB13 were able to confer tolerance to freezing temperatures via the induction of glucanase (GLU and PR2) and chitinase (PR4) proteins. In the present study, we show that the expression of these TFs, as well as that of their putative targets AtPR2, AtPR4 and AtGLU, is up-regulated by drought and salinity stresses. Transgenic plants overexpressing separately these five genes exhibited tolerance to severe drought and salinity stresses, displaying a cell membrane stabilization mechanism. Under normal or mild stress conditions, these plants achieved an improved yield associated with higher chlorophyll content. Moreover, overexpression of the sunflower HaHB1 gene from its own, inducible, promoter conferred a high drought-stress tolerance without yield penalty under normal or mild stress conditions. We propose these TFs as potential biotechnological tools to breed crops for tolerance to multiple stresses and for increased yield.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available