A combination of drought stress and heat shock is encountered by many field-grown
plants and crops in the US and abroad. This combination can have a severe detrimental
effect on plants resulting in reduced growth and productivity, or death. Although
drought stress and heat shock have been extensively studied, little is known
about how their combination impact plants. Preliminary results from Arabidopsis
and tobacco suggest that the physiological and molecular response of plants
to a combination of drought stress and heat shock is distinct from that of plants
subjected to each of these stresses applied individually. We hypothesize that
the response of plants to a combination of drought stress and heat shock is
controlled by a set of regulatory genes specifically induced or activated during
a combination of drought stress and heat shock. Furthermore, we hypothesize
that some of these genes can be used to enhance the resistance of plants and
crops to a combination of drought stress and heat shock. Using array technology
and RNA blots we are performing a comprehensive analysis of gene expression
in Arabidopsis and tobacco plants subjected to a combination of drought stress
and heat shock. We are identifying different regulatory genes specifically involved
in the response of plants to this stress combination, and test their function
with knockout plants and overexpressors.
Rizhsky, L., Hongjian, L. and Mittler, R. (2002) The combined effect of drought stress and heat shock on gene expression in tobacco. Plant Physiol. 130, 1143-1151.
Rizhsky L., Liang H., Shuman J., Shulaev V., Davletova S. and Mittler R. (2003) When defense pathways collide: The response of Arabidopsis to a combination of drought and heat stress. Plant Physiol. 134, 1683-1696.
Suzuki N, Rizhsky L, Liang H, Shuman J, Shulaev V, Mittler R (2005) Enhanced tolerance to environmental stresses in transgenic plants expressing the transcriptional co-activator MBF1. Plant Physiol. 139, 1313-1322.
Mittler. R (2006) Abiotic Stress, the Field Environment and Stress Combination. Trends Plant Sci. 11, 15-19
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