Project description:Rain-fed plants are subjected to cycles of drought and re-watering. Thus, efficient recovery from drought may be among the key determinants in the success of these plants, yet the mechanisms by which plant recover from drought have been historically understudied. To parse out the specific molecular processes leading to stress recovery, we performed a fine-scale time course of bulk RNA sequencing starting just 15 minutes after rehydration. We revealed that transcriptional drought recovery is an active and rapid process involving activating thousands of recovery-specific genes. To map the immediate recovery responses in diverse leaf-cell-types, we performed a single-nucleus transcriptome analysis of the onset of recovery from long-term moderate drought. Here we show the formation of unique cell states initiated rapidly following plant rehydration. We reveal the activation of a microbial-autonomic induction of the immune system and demonstrate that the onset of recovery leads to increased resistance against pathogens in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), wild tomato (Solanum pennellii) and domesticated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. M82). Our findings uncover that the preventive immune activation was preserved despite extensive selection during tomato domestication. Since rehydration increases microbial proliferation and, thus, the risk for infection, pre-activating immunity may be crucial for plants survival in natural environments. This work lays the foundation for unraveling the complexed processes actively facilitating stress recovery within plant leaves.
Project description:Abstract: Drought is the primary cause of global agricultural losses and represents a major threat to worldwide food security. Currently, plant biotechnology stands out as the most promising strategy to increase crop growth in rain-fed conditions. The main mechanisms underlying drought resistance have been uncovered by studies of plant physiology and by engineering crops with drought-resistant genes. However, plants with enhanced drought resistance usually display lower levels of growth, highlighting the need to search for novel strategies capable of uncoupling drought resistance from growth. Here, we show that the brassinosteroid family of receptors, in addition to promoting growth, guides phenotypic adaptation to a great variety of drought stress traits analyzed herein. Whilst mutations in the ubiquitously localized BRI1 receptor pathway show an enhanced drought resistance at the expense of plant growth, we found that vascular-enriched BRL3 receptors confer drought tolerance without penalizing overall growth. Systematic analyses reveal that upon drought stress the BRL3 receptor pathway triggers the synthesis and mobilization of osmoprotectant metabolites, mainly proline and sugars. This preferentially occurs in the vascular tissues of the roots and favors overall plant growth. Altogether, our results uncover a new role for the spatial control of BR signaling in drought tolerance, and offer a novel strategy to address food security issues in an increasingly water-limited climate.
Project description:Abstract: Drought is the primary cause of global agricultural losses and represents a major threat to worldwide food security. Currently, plant biotechnology stands out as the most promising strategy to increase crop growth in rain-fed conditions. The main mechanisms underlying drought resistance have been uncovered by studies of plant physiology and by engineering crops with drought-resistant genes. However, plants with enhanced drought resistance usually display lower levels of growth, highlighting the need to search for novel strategies capable of uncoupling drought resistance from growth. Here, we show that the brassinosteroid family of receptors, in addition to promoting growth, guides phenotypic adaptation to a great variety of drought stress traits analyzed herein. Whilst mutations in the ubiquitously localized BRI1 receptor pathway show an enhanced drought resistance at the expense of plant growth, we found that vascular-enriched BRL3 receptors confer drought tolerance without penalizing overall growth. Systematic analyses reveal that upon drought stress the BRL3 receptor pathway triggers the synthesis and mobilization of osmoprotectant metabolites, mainly proline and sugars. This preferentially occurs in the vascular tissues of the roots and favors overall plant growth. Altogether, our results uncover a new role for the spatial control of BR signaling in drought tolerance, and offer a novel strategy to address food security issues in an increasingly water-limited climate.