• Peer-reviewed journal article

• tobacco

• Agronomic properties

• United States, Japan, Israel

• positive effect

Drought, the most prominent threat to agricultural production worldwide, accelerates leaf senescence, leading to a decrease in canopy size, loss in photosynthesis and reduced yields. On the basis of the assumption that senescence is a type of cell death program that could be inappropriately activated during drought, we hypothesized that it may be possible to enhance drought tolerance by delaying drought-induced leaf senescence. We generated transgenic plants expressing an isopentenyltransferase gene driven by a stress- and maturation-induced promoter. Remarkably, the suppression of drought-induced leaf senescence resulted in outstanding drought tolerance as shown by, among other responses, vigorous growth after a long drought period that killed the control plants. The transgenic plants maintained high water contents and retained photosynthetic activity (albeit at a reduced level) during the drought. Moreover, the transgenic plants displayed minimal yield loss when watered with only 30% of the amount of water used under control conditions. The production of drought-tolerant crops able to grow under restricted water regimes without diminution of yield would minimize drought-related losses and ensure food production in water-limited lands.

• Will W. Lester Endowment
• University of California, Davis
• Arcadia Biosciences
• Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport, Spain

• United States
• Spain

• government
• industry: same

MLA

Rivero, RM, M Kojima, A Gepstein, H Sakakibara, R Mittler, S Gepstein, E Blumwald. "Delayed leaf senescence induces extreme drought tolerance in a flowering plant." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 104.49 (2007): 19631-19636 . Web. 20 Apr. 2024.

APA

Rivero, RM., Kojima, M., Gepstein, A., Sakakibara, H., Mittler, R., Gepstein, S., & Blumwald, E. (2007). Delayed leaf senescence induces extreme drought tolerance in a flowering plant. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A., 104(49), 19631-19636 . doi:10.1073/pnas.0709453104

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