Water is a critical environmental factor that restricts the geographic distribution of plants. Sheepgrass [Leymus chinensis, (Trin.) Tzvel] is an important forage grass in the Eurasia Steppe and a close germplasm for wheat and barley. This native grass adapts well to adverse environments such as cold, salinity, alkalinity and drought, and it can survive when the soil moisture may be less than 6...

Ubiquitin-regulated protein degradation is a critical regulatory mechanism that controls a wide range of biological processes in plants. Here, we report that OsDIS1 (for Oryza sativa drought-induced SINA protein 1), a C3HC4 RING finger E3 ligase, is involved in drought-stress signal transduction in rice (O. sativa). The expression of OsDIS1 was up-regulated by drought treatment. In vitro ubiqui...

Identification and evaluation of drought tolerant germplasm is the primary step for sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) breeding and utilization under drought conditions. The objective of this study was to use a grey relational analysis to investigate the role of feasible physiological parameters in evaluating drought tolerance in sorghum. Four sorghum varieties were cultivated in pots with two...

Drought stress affects cereals especially during the reproductive stage. The maize (Zea mays) drought transcriptome was studied using RNA-Seq analysis to compare drought-treated and well-watered fertilized ovary and basal leaf meristem tissue. More drought-responsive genes responded in the ovary compared with the leaf meristem. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis revealed a massive decrease in tr...

Along with predicted climate change, increased risks for summer drought are projected for Central Europe. However, large knowledge gaps exist in terms of how drought events influence the short-term ecosystem carbon cycle. Here, we present results from CO2 pulse labeling experiments at an intensively managed lowland grassland in Switzerland. We investigated the effect of extreme summer drought o...

The drought-tolerant 'Ningchun 47' (NC47) and drought-sensitive 'Chinese Spring' (CS) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars were treated with different PEG6000 concentrations at the three-leaf stage. An analysis on the physiological and proteomic changes of wheat seedling in response to drought stress was performed. In total, 146 differentially accumulated protein (DAP) spots were separated an...

Epigenetic mechanisms are crucial mediators of appropriate plant reactions to adverse environments, but their involvement in long-term adaptation is less clear. Here, we established two rice epimutation accumulation lines by applying drought conditions to 11 successive generations of two rice varieties. We took advantage of recent technical advances to examine the role of DNA methylation variat...

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) genes were confirmed to confer resistance to drought and water deficiency. An LEA gene from Tamarixandrossowii (named TaLEA) was transformed into Xiaohei poplar (Populussimonii × P. nigra) via Agrobacterium. Twenty-five independent transgenic lines were obtained that were resistant to kanamycin, and 11 transgenic lines were randomly selected for further analysi...