Overexpression of receptor-like kinase ERECTA improves thermotolerance in rice and tomato----中国科学院分子植物科学卓越创新中心/中国科学院上海植物生理生态研究所

Overexpression of receptor-like kinase ERECTA improves thermotolerance in rice and tomato

Global warming has greatly affected our environment, and temperature increases significantly affect plant growth and seriously threaten crop production. For example, the heat wave of the 2013 summer in Eastern China had a devastating impact on crops. However, genetic engineering to enhance plant tolerance to high temperature conditions has been rarely reported. Therefore, discovery and application of more thermotolerance genes are critical to thermotolerance improvement in crops.

Dr. HE Zuhua and his colleagues from Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, with collaboration with other groups, identified that a major Arabidopsis QTL qHat2-1 confers thermotolerance to extreme heat (40oC), this locus also confers disease resistance to pathogens. The QTL gene encodes the receptor-like kinase ERECTA (ER). They found that the loss-of-function er mutants exhibit hypersensitivity to heat, whereas ER overexpression confers high thermotolerance in the model plant Arabidopsis. They further recognized that ER could prevent heat-induced cell damage likely through activating a cell protection pathway. Field tests at multiple locations and seasons clearly proved that ER overexpression could enhance heat tolerance of transgenic tomato and rice during the summer. Moreover, they found that loss-of-function mutation of a rice ER homolog or low-expressed tomato ER alleles decreased thermotolerance whereas highly-expressed tomato ER alleles increased thermotolerance. Interestingly, ER-overexpressing transgenic plants display increased biomass, enhanced water use efficiency and drought tolerance, favoring agronomy. This study thus reveals a promising tool for breeding crops with high thermotolerance without sacrificing growth.

The study entitled “Overexpression of receptor-like kinase ERECTA improves thermotolerance in rice and tomato” has been published online in Nature Biotechnology on August 17.

The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, and NSFC.

CONTACT:
Zuhua He, Ph.D, Professor
National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics
Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences
300 Fenglin Road
Shanghai 200032
+86-21-54924121(Tel)
+86-21-54924123(Fax)
Email: zhhe@sibs.ac.cn