Abstract
Drought stress negatively affects wheat growth and yield. Application of drought agent is an effective way to improve crop drought tolerance, therefore increasing crop yield. Based on the structure of abscisic acid (ABA), Pyrabactin and coronatine (COR), we designed the target compound B2. To investigate the function of B2 in alleviating drought stress on wheat, the drought-resistant variety ND212 and drought-sensitive variety LX99 were used under hydroponic conditions. The results showed that B2 had a similar function with ABA, especially 0.01 μmol·L−1 B2. Under drought stress conditions, 0.01 μmol·L−1 B2 increased the water content of wheat, enhanced the osmotic adjustment ability of leaves, and reduced the toxicity of reactive oxygen species on cells. What’s more, 0.01 μmol·L−1 B2 improved the expression level of ABA-responsive genes TaSnRK2.4 and TaMYB3R1. It also improved the expression level of drought-responsive genes TaSRHP and TaERF3. Taken together, B2 enhanced drought tolerance in wheat by activating ABA signaling pathway.
Highlights
Wheat provides daily sustenance for a large portion of world’s population
What’s more, it was observed 45.5% increase of ND212 and 52.8% increase of LX99 in root/shoot ratio pretreated with 0.01 μmol·L−1 B2 under normal conditions, and observed significant increase by 27.6% and 27.7% respectively under drought stress conditions (Fig. 1d)
Previous studies has demonstrated that abscisic acid (ABA) plays critical roles in regulating plant growth, development, and response to abiotic stresses such as drought, salt, and cold[17]
Summary
Wheat provides daily sustenance for a large portion of world’s population. It is produced in a wide range of climates and different regions with frequent and various stresses. Hormone regulators was largely explored to breed adaptive varieties, which could enhance the tolerance of crops faced with the soil drought. Current research findings indicate that plant hormones regulate many aspects of plant growth, development and the responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Pyrabactin binded to PYR/PYL family proteins, and inhibited seed germination by reducing the activity of type 2C phosphatases[10] This compound shares the same receptor with ABA, indicating that it is an structural and functional analogue of ABA, but it has been reported in the literature that Pyrabactin did not induce plant stress-resistance[10,11]. Atropurpúrea, is a toxin which induces chlorosis on the leaves of Italian ryegrass[12] It can increase defense-related protease inhibitors and secondary metabolites, such as volatiles, nicotine, and alkaloid. To determine whether B2 has the similar effects with ABA on drought tolerance, two different winter wheat cultivars were used to explore the potential use of B2 in enhancing drought tolerance based on the physiological changes and different expression level of related genes under drought stress conditions
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