摘要
Drought stress is one of the major environmental factors affecting crop growth and productivity.Cuticular wax plays essential roles in protecting plants from environmental stress via forming a hydrophobic barrier on leaf epidermis.In this study,we analyzed nine members(OsCUT1‒OsCUT9)ofβ-ketoacyl-CoA synthase,the rate-limiting key enzyme for cuticular wax synthesis in rice by homology search and domain prediction.The expression levels of OsCUT genes under different abiotic stresses were investigated and OsCUT1 down-regulated by abiotic stress was selected for further function validation.Compared to the wild type,overexpression of OsCUT1(OX-OsCUT1)exhibited significantly increased drought resistance.Epicuticular wax was increased on the leaf surface of OX-OsCUT1 and the chlorophyll leaching experiment showed that the cuticular permeability was decreased in the OX-OsCUT1 plants.Moreover,overexpression of OsCUT1 didn’t result in the significant changes of major agronomic traits.In total,these results suggested that OsCUT1 is a promising gene for engineering rice plants with enhanced drought tolerance.
基金
the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.32071918 and 32000227).
