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Increased drought tolerance in plants engineered for low lignin and low xylan content
Increased drought tolerance in plants engineered for low lignin and low xylan content
- Source :
- Biotechnology for Biofuels, Biotechnology for Biofuels, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2018), Yan, J; Aznar, A; Chalvin, C; Birdseye, DS; Baidoo, EEK; Eudes, A; et al.(2018). Increased drought tolerance in plants engineered for low lignin and low xylan content. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 11(1). doi: 10.1186/s13068-018-1196-7. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/2tr6q2t7
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Background We previously developed several strategies to engineer plants to produce cost-efficient biofuels from plant biomass. Engineered Arabidopsis plants with low xylan and lignin content showed normal growth and improved saccharification efficiency under standard growth conditions. However, it remains to be determined whether these engineered plants perform well under drought stress, which is the primary source of abiotic stress in the field. Results Upon exposing engineered Arabidopsis plants to severe drought, we observed better survival rates in those with a low degree of xylan acetylation, low lignin, and low xylan content compared to those in wild-type plants. Increased pectic galactan content had no effect on drought tolerance. The drought-tolerant plants exhibited low water loss from leaves, and drought-responsive genes (RD29A, RD29B, DREB2A) were generally up-regulated under drought stress, which did not occur in the well-watered state. When compared with the wild type, plants with low lignin due to expression of QsuB, a 3-dehydroshikimate dehydratase, showed a stronger response to abscisic acid (ABA) in assays for seed germination and stomatal closure. The low-lignin plants also accumulated more ABA in response to drought than the wild-type plants. On the contrary, the drought tolerance in the engineered plants with low xylan content and low xylan acetylation was not associated with differences in ABA content or response compared to the wild type. Surprisingly, we found a significant increase in galactose levels and sugar released from the low xylan-engineered plants under drought stress. Conclusions This study shows that plants engineered to accumulate less lignin or xylan are more tolerant to drought and activate drought responses faster than control plants. This is an important finding because it demonstrates that modification of secondary cell walls does not necessarily render the plants less robust in the environment, and it shows that substantial changes in biomass composition can be achieved without compromising plant resilience. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13068-018-1196-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Arabidopsis thaliana
lcsh:Biotechnology
Drought tolerance
macromolecular substances
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Lignin
01 natural sciences
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
lcsh:Fuel
Abscisic acid
Xylan
03 medical and health sciences
chemistry.chemical_compound
lcsh:TP315-360
Biofuel
lcsh:TP248.13-248.65
Synthetic biology
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Abiotic stress
Research
fungi
technology, industry, and agriculture
food and beverages
Xylan acetylation
Horticulture
030104 developmental biology
General Energy
chemistry
Germination
Cell walls
Secondary cell wall
010606 plant biology & botany
Biotechnology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17546834
- Volume :
- 11
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Biotechnology for Biofuels
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....005692aa23b973ec8e0dfe4e5f18b26e
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-018-1196-7