Researchers at Purdue say genetically engineering plants to produce high levels of the protein PYL9 can dramatically improve drought tolerance in rice.
“Under severe drought conditions, the transgenic plants triggered the death of their old leaves — a process known as senescence — to conserve resources for seeds and buds, a survival strategy some plant scientists refer to as ‘die and let live,'” says a Purdue release. “The study offers insights into the drought survival mechanisms of plants and presents a possible means of protecting crops from severe drought stress.”
The Purdue team learned that engineering plants to over-express PYL9 makes them highly sensitive to absicisic acid, which regulates the reaction to stress as well as regulating growth and development. “PYL9 transgenic rice had a 50 percent survival rate after a two-week drought compared with 10 percent survival in wild type rice,” says Purdue.
Yang Zhao, lead author of the paper, says the study did not test the plants for yields so it is not known how much rice the plants would produce under good conditions compared to varieties now grown.