Field-grown transgenic wheat expressing the sunflower gene HaHB4 significantly outyields the wild type

GONZÁLEZ, FERNANDA GABRIELA; CURÍN, FACUNDO; WATSON, GERÓNIMO; CAPELLA, MATÍAS; GIACOMELLI, JORGE IGNACIO; OTEGUI, MARÍA ELENA; RIBICHICH, KARINA FABIANA; AYALA, FRANCISCO; CHAN, RAQUEL LÍA

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY

OXFORD UNIV PRESS

Año: 2019 vol. 70 p. 1669 - 1681

0022-0957

HaHB4 is a sunflower transcription factor belonging to the homeodomain-leucine zipper I family whose ectopic expression in Arabidopsis triggers drought tolerance. The use of PCR to clone the HaHB4 coding sequence for wheat transformation caused unprogrammed mutations producing subtle differences in its activation ability in yeast. Transgenic wheat plants carrying a mutated version of HaHB4 were tested in 37 field experiments. A selected transgenic line yielded 6% more (P