Abstract

Desiccation is lethal to most higher plants only the small group of the so-called resurrection plants have evolved mechanisms to tolerate extreme dehydration. Such plants can tolerate up to a 98% loss of relative water content and recover within several hours of rehydration. This extreme desiccation tolerance is the basis for using C. plantagineum as an axperimental system to investigate the molecular basis of desiccation tolerance (Ingram and Bartels 1996). Many desiccation-inducible genes encoding structural proteins, enzymes or regulatory proteins have been isolated and characterized. Callus from this resurrection plant is not normally desiccation tolerant but it acquires desiccation tolerance after it has been treated with exogenous ABA (Bartels et al. 1990) Thus it has an absolute requirement for exogenously applied ABA to withstand drying.KeywordsRelative Water ContentLate Embryogenesis AbundantDesiccation ToleranceResurrection PlantLate Embryogenesis Abundant GeneThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call