Grafting cucumber onto luffa improves drought tolerance by increasing ABA biosynthesis and sensitivity.

ABSTRACT: Balancing stomata-dependent CO2 assimilation and transpiration is a key challenge for increasing crop productivity and water use efficiency under drought stress for sustainable crop production worldwide. Here, we show that cucumber and luffa plants with luffa as rootstock have intrinsically increased water use efficiency, decreased transpiration rate and less affected CO2 assimilation capacity following drought stress over those with cucumber as rootstock. Drought accelerated abscisic acid (ABA) accumulation in roots, xylem sap and leaves, and induced the transcript of ABA signaling genes, leading to a decreased stomatal aperture and transpiration in the plants grafted onto luffa roots as compared to plants grafted onto cucumber roots. Furthermore, stomatal movement in the plants grafted o

SUBMITTER: Liu S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735794 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature