Overexpression of the vascular brassinosteroid receptor BRL3 confers drought resistance without penalizing plant growth

• Published in: Nature communications 2018-11, Vol.9 (1), p.4680-13, Article 4680
• Main Authors: Fàbregas, Norma, Lozano-Elena, Fidel, Blasco-Escámez, David, Tohge, Takayuki, Martínez-Andújar, Cristina, Albacete, Alfonso, Osorio, Sonia, Bustamante, Mariana, Riechmann, José Luis, Nomura, Takahito, Yokota, Takao, Conesa, Ana, Alfocea, Francisco Pérez, Fernie, Alisdair R., Caño-Delgado, Ana I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45; 45/91; 631/449/1741/2670; 631/449/2661/2146; 631/449/447; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis - physiology; Crops; Cybersecurity; Drought; Drought resistance; Droughts; Food security; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Metabolites; Metabolome; multidisciplinary; Mutation; Mutation - genetics; Osmotic Pressure; Plant Development - genetics; Plant growth; Plant Roots - genetics; Plant Roots - physiology; Plant tissues; Plant Vascular Bundle - metabolism; Plants, Genetically Modified; Proline; Receptors, Cell Surface - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Stress, Physiological - genetics; Sugar; Transcription, Genetic; Tropism
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06861-3

Drought represents a major threat to food security. Mechanistic data describing plant responses to drought have been studied extensively and genes conferring drought resistance have been introduced into crop plants. However, plants with enhanced drought resistance usually display lower growth, highlighting the need for strategies to uncouple drought resistance from growth. Here, we show that overexpression of BRL3, a vascular-enriched member of the brassinosteroid receptor family, can confer drought stress tolerance in Arabidopsis . Whereas loss-of-function mutations in the ubiquitously expressed BRI1 receptor leads to drought resistance at the expense of growth, overexpression of BRL3 receptor confers drought tolerance without penalizing overall growth. Systematic analyses reveal that upon drought stress, increased BRL3 triggers the accumulation of osmoprotectant metabolites including proline and sugars. Transcriptomic analysis suggests that this results from differential expression of genes in the vascular tissues. Altogether, this data suggests that manipulating BRL3 expression could be used to engineer drought tolerant crops. Drought resistant plants typically have reduced growth. Here the authors show that overexpression of the BRL3 brassinosteroid receptor confers drought tolerance and accumulation of osmoprotectant metabolites without penalizing growth, demonstrating that drought response and growth can be uncoupled.