Ectopic expression of a pea apyrase enhances root system architecture and drought survival in Arabidopsis and soybean.

Ectoapyrases (ecto-NTPDases) function to decrease levels of extracellular ATP and ADP in animals and plants. Prior studies showed that ectopic expression of a pea ectoapyrase, psNTP9, enhanced growth in Arabidopsis seedlings and that the overexpression of the two Arabidopsis apyrases most closely related to psNTP9 enhanced auxin transport and growth in Arabidopsis. These results predicted that ectopic expression of psNTP9 could promote a more extensive root system architecture (RSA) in Arabidopsis.