Beyond Arabidopsis: BBX Regulators in Crop Plants

Arabidopsis SDIR1 enhances drought tolerance in crop plants.

Arabidopsis E3 ligase salt- and drought-induced RING-finger 1 (SDIR1) has been found to be involved in abscisic acid (ABA)-related stress signaling. SDIR1-overexpressing Arabidopsis plants exhibit improved tolerance to drought. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and rice (Oryza sativa) are two important agronomic crop plants. To determine whether SDIR1 enhances drought resistance in crop plants, SDIR1...

Biofortification of Crop Plants

Salt resistant crop plants.

Soil salinity is a major constraint to agriculture. To improve salinity tolerance of crops, various traits can be incorporated, including ion exclusion, osmotic tolerance and tissue tolerance. We review the roles of a range of genes involved in salt tolerance traits. Different tissues and cells are adapted for specific and often diverse function, so it is important to express the genes in speci...

Soybean GmPHD-Type Transcription Regulators Improve Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis Plants

BACKGROUND Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is one of the most important crops for oil and protein resource. Improvement of stress tolerance will be beneficial for soybean seed production. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Six GmPHD genes encoding Alfin1-type PHD finger protein were identified and their expressions differentially responded to drought, salt, cold and ABA treatments. The six GmPHDs were nucle...

Oxalate-degrading bacteria can protect Arabidopsis thaliana and crop plants against botrytis cinerea.

Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum secrete oxalic acid as a pathogenicity factor with a broad action. Consequently, it should be possible to interfere with the infection process by degrading oxalic acid during the interaction of these pathogens with their hosts. We have evaluated the potential of oxalate-degrading bacteria to protect plants against pathogenic fungi. Such bacteria wer...