Delayed leaf senescence induces extreme drought tolerance in a flowering plant
Abstract
Drought, the most prominent threat to agricultural production worldwide, accelerates leaf senescence, leading to a decrease in canopy size, loss in photosynthesis and reduced yields. On the basis of the assumption that senescence is a type of cell death program that could be inappropriately activated during drought, we hypothesized that it may be possible to enhance drought tolerance by delaying drought-induced leaf senescence. We generated transgenic plants expressing an isopentenyltransferase gene driven by a stress- and maturation-induced promoter. Remarkably, the suppression of drought-induced leaf senescence resulted in outstanding drought tolerance as shown by, among other responses, vigorous growth after a long drought period that killed the control plants. The transgenic plants maintained high water contents and retained photosynthetic activity (albeit at a reduced level) during the drought. Moreover, the transgenic plants displayed minimal yield loss when watered with only 30% of the amount of water used under control conditions. The production of drought-tolerant crops able to grow under restricted water regimes without diminution of yield would minimize drought-related losses and ensure food production in water-limited lands.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Will W. Lester Endowment; the University of California, Davis; Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.; and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport, Spain (to R.M.R.).
Supporting Information
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© 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
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Received: July 30, 2007
Published online: December 4, 2007
Published in issue: December 4, 2007
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Will W. Lester Endowment; the University of California, Davis; Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.; and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport, Spain (to R.M.R.).
Notes
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0709453104/DC1.
Authors
Competing Interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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