Tobacco drought stress responses reveal new targets for Solanaceae crop improvement.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Solanaceae are an economically important family of plants that include tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), tomato, and potato. Drought is a major cause of crop losses.

Results

We have identified major changes in physiology, metabolites, mRNA levels, and promoter activities during the tobacco response to drought. We have classified these as potential components of core responses that may be common to many plant species or responses that may be family/species-specific features of the drought stress response in tobacco or the Solanaceae. In tobacco the largest increase in any metabolite was a striking 70-fold increase in 4-hydroxy-2-oxoglutaric acid (KHG) in roots that appears to be tobacco/Solanaceae specific. KHG is poorly characterized in plants but is broken down

SUBMITTER: Rabara RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4485875 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature