Modulation of energy homeostasis in maize and Arabidopsis to develop lines tolerant to drought, genotoxic and oxidative stresses 1

Abiotic stresses cause crop losses worldwide that reduce the average yield by more than 50%. Due to the high energy consumed to enhance the respiration rates, the excessive reactive oxygen species release provokes cell death and, ultimately, whole plant decay. A metabolic engineering approach in mai...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Afrika focus 2017-01, Vol.30 (2), p.66-76
Main Authors: Njuguna, Elizabeth, Coussens, Griet, Aesaert, Stijn, Neyt, Pia, Anami, Sylvester, Van Lijsebettens, Mieke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Agroforestry
Corn
Drought
Editing
Genotype & phenotype
Homeostasis
Oxidative stress
Respiratory system
Stress
Zea mays
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abiotic stresses cause crop losses worldwide that reduce the average yield by more than 50%. Due to the high energy consumed to enhance the respiration rates, the excessive reactive oxygen species release provokes cell death and, ultimately, whole plant decay. A metabolic engineering approach in maize (Zea mays) altered the expression of two poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation metabolic pathway proteins, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and ADP-ribose-specific Nudix hydrolase (NUDX) genes that play a role in the maintenance of the energy homeostasis during stresses. By means of RNAi hairpin silencing and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing strategies, the PARP expression in maize was downregulated or knocked down. The Arabidopsis NUDX7 gene and its two maize homologs, ZmNUĽXi and ZmNUDX8, were over-expressed in maize and Arabidopsis. Novel phenotypes were observed, such as significant tolerance to oxidative stress and improved yield in Arabidopsis and a trend of tolerance to mild drought stress in maize and in Arabidopsis.
ISSN:0772-084X
2031-356X