OsWRKY114 Negatively Regulates Drought Tolerance by Restricting Stomatal Closure in Rice.

The WRKY family of transcription factors plays a pivotal role in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stress. The WRKY Group III transcription factor OsWRKY114 is a positive regulator of innate immunity against pv. ; however, its role in abiotic stress responses is largely unknown. In this study, we showed that the abundant transcripts present in transgenic rice plants are reduced under drought conditions. The overexpression of significantly increased drought sensitivity in rice, which resulted in a lower survival rate after drought stress. Moreover, we showed that stomatal closure, which is a strategy to save water under drought, is restricted in -overexpressing plants compared with wild-type plants. The expression levels of genes, such as and that confer drought tolerance through stomatal closure, were also markedly lower in the -overexpressing plants. Taken together, these results suggest that OsWRKY114 negatively regulates plant tolerance to drought stress via inhibition of stomatal closure, which would otherwise prevent water loss in rice.