The Receptor-Like Kinase Confers Improved Water Use Efficiency and Drought Tolerance to Poplar via Modulating Stomatal Density.

Int J Mol Sci

Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular Design, College of Biological Sciences and Technology, National Engineering Laboratory of Tree Breeding, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China.

Published: July 2021

Poplar is one of the most important tree species in the north temperate zone, but poplar plantations are quite water intensive. We report here that CaMV 35S promoter-driven overexpression of the gene, which is a member of the LRR-RLKs family from × ( × ), improves water use efficiency and enhances drought tolerance in triploid white poplar. localizes to the plasma membrane. Overexpression plants showed lower stomatal density and larger stomatal size. The abaxial stomatal density was 24-34% lower and the stomatal size was 12-14% larger in overexpression lines. Reduced stomatal density led to a sharp restriction of transpiration, which was about 18-35% lower than the control line, and instantaneous water use efficiency was around 14-63% higher in overexpression lines under different conditions. These phenotypic changes led to increased drought tolerance. overexpression plants not only survived longer after stopping watering but also performed better when supplied with limited water, as they had better physical and photosynthesis conditions, faster growth rate, and higher biomass accumulation. Taken together, our data suggest that can alter the development pattern of stomata to reduce stomatal density, which then restricts water consumption, conferring enhanced drought tolerance to poplar. This makes trees promising candidates for establishing more water use efficient plantations.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8303786PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22147245DOI Listing

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