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Leaf wax trait in crops for drought and biotic stress tolerance: regulators of epicuticular wax synthesis and role of small RNAs

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Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture, an approach evolved to develop and guide actions needed to transform agricultural systems in a changing climate is being encouraged globally to ensure food security. Climatic variables termed as abiotic stresses affect crop production and food quality. Amongst various abiotic stresses, drought is the major one, especially in tropical countries, the occurrence of which can alter biotic stress (plant–pest/pathogen) interactions. Crop biologists are making concerted efforts to understand the stress adaptive mechanisms with an ultimate goal of manipulating specific traits to sustain production. In crop plants, drought tolerance is regulated by multiple traits among which the ones related to water relations and cellular tolerance are considered to be vital. The stress adaptive responses originate from the differential expression of genes, which are governed by complex regulatory networks. Modern research findings have revealed that small RNAs (sRNAs) such as microRNA and small-interfering RNA play crucial roles in plant stress adaptation. Recent studies demonstrated that leaf cuticle and surface wax serves as an important trait for multiple stress tolerance, and many regulatory genes coordinate wax accumulation. This review attempts to compile the information on sRNAs, its role in regulating drought trait expression, with main focus on the cuticular resistance trait, epicuticular waxes (EW). This review also outlines the relevance of key transcriptional regulators involved in cuticular wax production and the potential role of EW in combined stress tolerance in plants. Overall, the review highlights the need of exploring sRNAs associated with EW-trait for targeted manipulation to sustain productivity of crop plants under combined stresses.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Directorate of Research, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru for the research grant (Ref. number: DR/Prof.(S)/RKVY/B-44/2017–18).

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Author notes

  1. R. S. Sajeevan

    Present address: National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, GKVK Campus, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

  2. M. S. Parvathi

    Present address: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

  3. R. S. Sajeevan and M. S. Parvathi have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

    R. S. Sajeevan, M. S. Parvathi & Karaba N. Nataraja

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  1. R. S. Sajeevan
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Correspondence to Karaba N. Nataraja.

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Sajeevan, R.S., Parvathi, M.S. & Nataraja, K.N. Leaf wax trait in crops for drought and biotic stress tolerance: regulators of epicuticular wax synthesis and role of small RNAs. Ind J Plant Physiol. 22, 434–447 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40502-017-0333-9

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