Structure-guided engineering of a receptor-agonist pair for inducible activation of the ABA adaptive response to drought.

ABSTRACT: Strategies to activate abscisic acid (ABA) receptors and boost ABA signaling by small molecules that act as ABA receptor agonists are promising biotechnological tools to enhance plant drought tolerance. Protein structures of crop ABA receptors might require modifications to improve recognition of chemical ligands, which in turn can be optimized by structural information. Through structure-based targeted design, we have combined chemical and genetic approaches to generate an ABA receptor agonist molecule (iSB09) and engineer a CsPYL1 ABA receptor, named CsPYL1^5m, which efficiently binds iSB09. This optimized receptor-agonist pair leads to activation of ABA signaling and marked drought tolerance. No constitutive activation of ABA signaling and hence growth penalty was observed in

SUBMITTER: Lozano-Juste J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10005185 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature