Overexpression of the CaHB12 transcription factor in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) improves drought tolerance.

The Coffea arabica HB12 gene (CaHB12), which encodes a transcription factor belonging to the HD-Zip I subfamily, is upregulated under drought, and its constitutive overexpression (35S:CaHB12OX) improves the Arabidopsis thaliana tolerance to drought and salinity stresses. Herein, we generated transgenic cotton events constitutively overexpressing the CaHB12 gene, characterized these events based on their increased tolerance to water deficit, and exploited the gene expression level from the CaHB12 network. The segregating events Ev8.29.1, Ev8.90.1, and Ev23.36.1 showed higher photosynthetic yield and higher water use efficiency under severe water deficit and permanent wilting point conditions compared to wild-type plants. Under well-irrigated conditions, these three promising transformed events showed an equivalent level of Abscisic acid (ABA) and decreased Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) accumulation, and a higher putrescine/(spermidine + spermine) ratio in leaf tissues was found in the progenies of at least two transgenic cotton events compared to non-transgenic plants. In addition, genes that are considered as modulated in the A. thaliana 35S:CaHB12OX line were also shown to be modulated in several transgenic cotton events maintained under field capacity conditions. The upregulation of GhPP2C and GhSnRK2 in transgenic cotton events maintained under permanent wilting point conditions suggested that CaHB12 might act enhancing the ABA-dependent pathway. All these data confirmed that CaHB12 overexpression improved the tolerance to water deficit, and the transcriptional modulation of genes related to the ABA signaling pathway or downstream genes might enhance the defense responses to drought. The observed decrease in IAA levels indicates that CaHB12 overexpression can prevent leaf abscission in plants under or after stress. Thus, our findings provide new insights on CaHB12 gene and identify several promising cotton events for conducting field trials on water deficit tolerance and agronomic performance.

Leaf gas exchange and chlorophyll a fluorescence in wheat plants supplied with silicon and infected with Pyricularia oryzae.

This study investigated the effect of silicon (Si) on the photosynthetic gas exchange parameters (net CO2 assimilation rate [A], stomatal conductance to water vapor [gs], internal CO2 concentration [Ci], and transpiration rate [E]) and chlorophyll fluorescence a parameters (maximum quantum quenching [Fv/Fm and Fv'/Fm'], photochemical [qP] and nonphotochemical [NPQ] quenching coefficients, and electron transport rate [ETR]) in wheat plants grown in a nutrient solution containing 0 mM (-Si) or 2 mM (+Si) Si and noninoculated or inoculated with Pyricularia oryzae. Blast severity decreased due to higher foliar Si concentration. For the inoculated +Si plants, A, gs, and E were significantly higher in contrast to the inoculated -Si plants. For the inoculated +Si plants, significant differences of Fv/Fm between the -Si and +Si plants occurred at 48, 96, and 120 h after inoculation (hai) and at 72, 96, and 120 hai for Fv'/Fm'. The Fv/Fm and Fv'/Fm', in addition to total chlorophyll concentration (a + b) and the chlorophyll a/b ratio, significantly decreased in the -Si plants compared with the +Si plants. Significant differences between the -Si and +Si inoculated plants occurred for qP, NPQ, and ETR. The supply of Si contributed to decrease blast severity in addition to improving gas exchange performance and causing less dysfunction at the photochemical level.