Screening Arabidopsis Genotypes for Drought Stress Resistance

Abstract

A high throughput drought screen is described for Arabidopsis that is based on a gravimetric method to monitor and control water content of the soil. To screen for plant growth under mild drought conditions, 30% of field capacity can be used, which is equal to 2 g H(2)O/g dry soil. The screen allows the testing of a large number of plants of different sizes to the same level of soil water. Therefore, response to drought of different genotypes can be compared. This method can be used for knockout or overexpression genotypes, which are evaluated for their drought response in terms of their growth measured by change in biomass.

Wheat flag leaf epicuticular wax morphology and composition in response to moderate drought stress are revealed by SEM, FTIR‐ATR and synchrotron X‐ray spectroscopy

“…Both MdS and well‐watered plants were given the same concentration of nutrients every 8 days. MdS was defined and applied as described previously by Harb and Pereira () as the exposure of plants to 30% field capacity. Soil moisture levels were monitored by measuring the soil relative water content (RWC) of 1 g soil samples: …”

“…Plants have evolved acclimation strategies to tolerate and avoid the gradual loss of water (Levitt , Watkinson et al , Harb et al , Harb and Pereira , Wang et al ). In winter wheat, pre‐exposure to a moderate drought stress (MdS) prior to anthesis induces an acclimation response, improving grain yields during a second exposure to drought compared to non‐acclimated plants (Wang et al ).…”

The Alfin‐like homeodomain finger protein AL5 suppresses multiple negative factors to confer abiotic stress tolerance in Arabidopsis

“…The plants were dried at 75°C for at least 2 days, and the biomass (dry weight) was measured. The change in biomass was calculated in comparison with the well‐watered plants (Harb and Pereira, ): reduction in biomass (dry weight) = [(biomass of well‐watered plants) − (biomass of drought‐treated plants)]/(biomass of well‐watered plants).…”

GmWRKY54 improves drought tolerance through activating genes in abscisic acid and Ca2+ signaling pathways in transgenic soybean

“…When persistently exposed to drought stress, plants suffer from multiple impairments such as oxidative injury, membrane system damage, cellular ion leakage and protein denaturation (Joshi et al ., ). During drought stress, the photosynthesis rate of a plant declines, CO 2 uptake decreases, biomass accumulation and yield are negatively affected (Chaves et al ., ; Harb and Pereira, ; Pinheiro and Chaves, ). To adapt to drought stress, plants have evolved an integrated strategy including signal perception and transduction, regulation of gene expression and biochemical and physiological responses (Huang et al ., ).…”