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Expression of Arabidopsis DREB1C improves survival, growth, and yield of upland New Rice for Africa (NERICA) under drought

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Abstract

Dehydration-responsive-element-binding protein 1 genes have important roles in response to stress. To improve the drought tolerance of an upland rice cultivar NERICA1, we introduced Arabidopsis AtDREB1C or rice OsDREB1B driven by a stress-inducible rice lip9 promoter. Plants of some transgenic lines survived better than non-transgenic plants under severe drought. AtDREB1C transgenic plants had higher dry weights than non-transgenic plants when grown under moderate drought until the late vegetative growth stage. On the other hand, OsDREB1B transgenic plants had lower dry weights than non-transgenic plants under the same condition. Similar results were obtained under osmotic stress. The AtDREB1C transgenic plants headed earlier, had a larger sink capacity, and had more filled grains than non-transgenic plants. These results suggest that AtDREB1C expressed in NERICA1 improves not only survival under severe drought, but also growth and yield under moderate drought.

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Abbreviations

DREB1:

Dehydration-responsive-element-binding protein 1

NERICA:

New Rice for Africa

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Mariko Shono of the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) for providing the bacterial strain; the Africa Rice Center for providing the seeds of NERICA; and Drs. Seiji Yanagihara, Yoshimichi Fukuta, and Kazuhiro Suenaga (JIRCAS) for their valuable suggestions. We are grateful for the excellent technical support provided by Suwako Yajima, Ayako Urasoe, Chie Miyagi, Hitomi Oonaka, and Eiko Tamaki (JIRCAS). This work was supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (Genomics for Agricultural Innovation, Development of Abiotic Stress Tolerant Crops by DREB Genes).

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  1. Takashi Kumashiro

    Present address: Africa Rice Center, 01 BP 2031, Cotonou, Benin

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tropical Agriculture Research Front, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), 1091-1 Maezato-Kawarabaru, Ishigaki, Okinawa, 907-0002, Japan

    Takuma Ishizaki & Akiyo Fukutani

  2. Biological Resources Division, JIRCAS, 1-1 Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

    Kyonoshin Maruyama, Mitsuhiro Obara, Kazuko Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, Yusuke Ito & Takashi Kumashiro

  3. Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-9657, Japan

    Kazuko Yamaguchi-Shinozaki

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  1. Takuma Ishizaki
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Correspondence to Takuma Ishizaki.

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Ishizaki, T., Maruyama, K., Obara, M. et al. Expression of Arabidopsis DREB1C improves survival, growth, and yield of upland New Rice for Africa (NERICA) under drought. Mol Breeding 31, 255–264 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11032-012-9785-9

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