Tag: Drought

Long-standing puzzles have perplexed scientists about the physiological tradeoff between drought resistance and crop production, and this review brings the pieces together. What, exactly, allows a crop to keep producing when water runs short? Should breeding focus on early stomatal closure and limited…

Drought is a major constraint on maize production, and understanding the underlying molecular regulators is key to breeding resilient varieties. Yang et al. investigated the role of the wall-associated kinase ZmWAK3 in maize seedlings and found it to be a negative regulator of drought tolerance. Loss-of-function…

Osmosis, driving water uptake and transport, is crucial for plants. It supports nutrient uptake, turgidity, and overall plant health. In hyperosmotic conditions, caused by drought, salinity, and cold stress, water loss triggers osmotic responses. A key question is: what sensors detect osmotic changes?…

Li, Zhang, Liu et al. demonstrate that the E3 ligase TaGW2 enhances wheat drought tolerance by promoting the degradation of the transcription factor TaARR12. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad307 By Shumin Li, Zhensheng Kang and Hude Mao State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid…

The accumulation of metabolites such as proline as compatible osmolytes is a protective mechanism against drought stress in plants. Similarly, under drought conditions, there is an observable increase in the accumulation of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), including the essential amino acids isoleucine,…

Harvest index (HI) is the ratio of grain yield to the sum of grain, leaf, and stem biomass. HI is affected by environmental conditions such as water availability. Previously, carbohydrate remobilization from stem to grain has been shown to be affected by drought  (which in rice contributes to C remobilization)…

Wang et al. investigate the function of SPR1 in ABA-induced stomatal closure By Pan Wang and Sijia Qi State Key Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry; Department of Plant Sciences, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China Background: Drought…

The observation that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” (attributed to philosopher George Santayana) is quite relevant for our efforts to comprehend the impacts of climate change. As we observe temperature and rainfall records being broken with increasing frequency,…