OVEREXPRESSION OF ARABIDOPSIS ASPARTIC PROTEASE APA-1 CONFERS DROUGHT TOLERANCE

D'IPPÓLITO, SEBASTIÁN; FIOL, D; DALEO, GUSTAVO RAUL; GABRIELA, GUEVARA MARÍA

Congreso; LVI SAIB Meeting ?XV SAMIGE Meeting; 2020

SAIB

Drought is an environmental stress that severely affects plant growth and crop production. Different studies have focused on drought responses but the molecular bases that regulate these mechanisms are still unclear. We report the participation of Aspartic Protease (APA1) in drought tolerance. Overexpressing APA1 Arabidopsis plants (OE-APA1), showed a phenotype more tolerant to drought compared with WT, and inversely, apa1 insertional lines resulted more sensitive respect to WT. Leaves of OE-APA1 plants showed changes at morphological and physiological level related to water loss. OE-APA1 leaves showed a lower stomata index and stomata density as well as a smaller size of the stomatic aperture compared to WT plants. qPCR analysis in OE-APA1 leaves, showed high levels of gene expression related to response and synthesis of ABA as well as different transcription factors that modify the signaling pathway of its hormone. Analysis of plant lines expressing APA1 promoter fused to GUS showed that APA1 is expressed in chloroplasts of epidermal and stomata cells. In summary, this work suggests that APA1 is involved in ABA-dependent responsiveness and that its overexpression confers drought tolerance in Arabidopsis