Abstract
BACKGROUND: Drought is a major social and economic problem resulting in huge yield reduction in the field. Today's challenge is to develop plants with reduced water requirements and stable yields in fluctuating environmental conditions. Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding. Drought tolerance in the field was successfully conferred to crops by transferring genes from this model species. While involved in a plant genomics programme, which aims to identify new genes responsible for plant response to abiotic stress, we identified ESKIMO1 as a key gene involved in plant water economy as well as cold acclimation and salt tolerance. RESULTS: All esk1 mutants were more tolerant to freezing, after acclimation, than their wild type counterpart. esk1 mutants also showed increased tolerance to mild water deficit for all traits measured. The mutant's improved tolerance to reduced water supply may be explained by its lower transpiration rate and better water use efficiency (WUE), which was assessed by carbon isotope discrimination and gas exchange measurements. esk1 alleles were also shown to be more tolerant to salt stress. Transcriptomic analysis of one mutant line and its wild-type background was carried out. Under control watering conditions a number of genes were differentially expressed between the mutant and the wild type whereas under mild drought stress this list of genes was reduced. Among the genes that were differentially expressed between the wild type and mutant, two functional categories related to the response to stress or biotic and abiotic stimulus were over-represented. Under salt stress conditions, all gene functional categories were represented equally in both the mutant and wild type. Based on this transcriptome analysis we hypothesise that in control conditions the esk1 mutant behaves as if it was exposed to drought stress. CONCLUSION: Overall our findings suggest that the ESKIMO1 gene plays a major role in plant response to water shortage and in whole plant water economy. Further experiments are being undertaken to elucidate the function of the ESKIMO1 protein and the way it modulates plant water uptake.
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
esk1 mutants were more tolerant to freezing after acclimation than wild type
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thaliana
Arabidopsis thalianae0 - Material
- esk1 mutantse1
- Treatment
- freezinge1
- Gene
- esk1e1
- Outcome
- tolerant to freezinge1
- Direction
- more tolerante1
- Qualifier
- after acclimatione1
- Comparator
- their wild type counterparte1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e1“All esk1 mutants were more tolerant to freezing, after acclimation, than their wild type counterpart”
Claim · model-written summary
esk1 mutants showed increased tolerance to mild water deficit for all traits measured
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Material
- esk1 mutantse2
- Treatment
- mild water deficite2
- Outcome
- tolerance to mild water deficite2
- Direction
- increasede2
- Qualifier
- for all traits measurede2
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e2“esk1 mutants also showed increased tolerance to mild water deficit for all traits measured”
Claim · model-written summary
The improved drought tolerance of esk1 mutants may be explained by lower transpiration rate and better water use efficiency
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Outcome
- water use efficiencye3
- Qualifier
- lower transpiration ratee3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e3“The mutant's improved tolerance to reduced water supply may be explained by its lower transpiration rate and better water use efficiency (WUE)”
Claim · model-written summary
esk1 alleles were more tolerant to salt stress
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Material
- esk1 allelese4
- Treatment
- salt stresse4
- Outcome
- tolerant to salt stresse4
- Direction
- more tolerante4
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e4“esk1 alleles were also shown to be more tolerant to salt stress”
Claim · model-written summary
Under mild drought, fewer genes were differentially expressed between esk1 mutant and wild type than under control watering
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Treatment
- mild drought stresse5
- Outcome
- a number of genes were differentially expressede5
- Direction
- reducede5
- Comparator
- control watering conditionse5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e5“Under control watering conditions a number of genes were differentially expressed between the mutant and the wild type whereas under mild drought stress this list of genes was reduced”
Claim · model-written summary
Two functional gene categories related to stress or stimulus response were over-represented among mutant-wild type differentially expressed genes
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Outcome
- over-representede6
- Value
- twoe6
- Qualifier
- related to the response to stress or biotic and abiotic stimuluse6
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e6“two functional categories related to the response to stress or biotic and abiotic stimulus were over-represented”
Claim · model-written summary
Under salt stress, all gene functional categories were represented equally in mutant and wild type
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Outcome
- represented equallye7
- Qualifier
- in both the mutant and wild typee7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e7“all gene functional categories were represented equally in both the mutant and wild type”
Claim · model-written summary
In control conditions the esk1 mutant may behave as if exposed to drought stress
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Material
- esk1 mutante1
- Outcome
- behaves as if it was exposed to drought stresse1
- Qualifier
- in control conditionse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e1“we hypothesise that in control conditions the esk1 mutant behaves as if it was exposed to drought stress”
Claim · model-written summary
The ESKIMO1 gene plays a major role in plant response to water shortage and whole-plant water economy
- Taxon
- Arabidopsis thalianaArabidopsis thalianae0
- Gene
- ESKIMO1e2
- Outcome
- plant response to water shortagee2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arabidopsis thaliana is an excellent model for identifying potential targets for plant breeding”
e2“Overall our findings suggest that the ESKIMO1 gene plays a major role in plant response to water shortage and in whole plant water economy”
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