IIB   20738
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOLOGICAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
OVEREXPRESSION OF ARABIDOPSIS ASPARTIC PROTEASE APA-1 CONFERS DROUGHT TOLERANCE
Autor/es:
FERNANDO, FIOL DIEGO; GUSTAVO DALEO; D'IPPÓLITO S; MARÍA G. GUEVARA.
Lugar:
Mendoza y on-line
Reunión:
Congreso; Reunion conjunta SAIB SAMIGE 2020; 2020
Institución organizadora:
SAIB SAMIGE
Resumen:
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, we demonstrated that APA1 confer tolerance to water deficit when is overexpressed in Arabidopsis. This is, at least in part, due its role as an intermediate in the ABA-induced stomatal closure. Specifically, ABA accumulation could induce APA1 gene expression, and APA1 protein could induce, directly or indirectly, the expression of different genes related with the ABA responses and/or interact with different protein leading or cooperating with the response to drought, principally those associated with stomata closure and density.