Gene networks involved in drought stress response and tolerance

TLDR

Plants survive water deficit by activating physiological, cellular, and molecular processes that culminate in stress tolerance, involving numerous drought‑inducible genes whose products act in both the initial response and in establishing tolerance. This review summarizes recent progress in analyzing drought‑stress gene expression and elucidating the functions of genes involved in the stress response and tolerance. The review also describes how identified stress‑tolerance genes have been used to engineer dehydration tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis.

Abstract

Plants respond to survive under water-deficit conditions via a series of physiological, cellular, and molecular processes culminating in stress tolerance. Many drought-inducible genes with various functions have been identified by molecular and genomic analyses in Arabidopsis, rice, and other plants, including a number of transcription factors that regulate stress-inducible gene expression. The products of stress-inducible genes function both in the initial stress response and in establishing plant stress tolerance. In this short review, recent progress resulting from analysis of gene expression during the drought-stress response in plants as well as in elucidating the functions of genes implicated in the stress response and/or stress tolerance are summarized. A description is also provided of how various genes involved in stress tolerance were applied in genetic engineering of dehydration stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis plants.