Drought tolerant plant gene discovered

An international group of plant scientists, led by Dr Gonzalo Estavillo and Professor Barry Pogson at The Australian National University have discovered a subtle mutation in Arabidopsis, a small, rapid growing plant, which may have important and far reaching implications for establishing drought resistance throughout the plant kingdom.

"This work actually began when we were looking at different mutant varieties of Arabidopsis that had unusual responses to high light,” said Dr Estavillo. “We
discovered a particular mutant gene called SAL1 that enabled plants to survive longer without added water, and seeing the obvious potential, we began to investigate.”
One potential the group is currently exploring is the application of the mutation to food crops such as rice or wheat, and the researchers will now begin to introduce the mutant characteristics into the elite wheat cultivars currently used in agriculture industry.

"The ultimate aim of the project is to develop wheat lines with improved drought tolerance and water use,” explained Dr Estavillo. “The next step will be to identify wheat mutant plants lacking SAL1 genes identified by molecular biology procedures. We expect that these mutants should remain green, turgid and photosynthetically active, producing more leaves, flowers and seeds during mild to moderate water deficit.”

Estavillo points out that with most climate models predicting that the vast wheat growing areas of southern Australia will become drastically drier over the next fifty years the prospect of drought resistant wheat offers much promise for ensuring long term food supply and economic wellbeing. This has been recognised by the Australian Government’s Grains Research Development Corporation, which recently provided further funding for Dr Estavillo and Professor Pogson to identify genetic variants of the SAL1 gene in wheat, in conjunction with CSIRO Plant Industry.

The SAL1 mutation also has the advantage of facilitating less controversial solutions to the enhancement of food crops. Because the basis of the mutation is a missing gene it would also be potentially possible to create drought tolerance in a plant like wheat without employing transgenic methods, or what is commonly referred to as Genetic Modification (GM) Technology, which rely on splicing genes into existing genomes.

Instead, using traditional plant breeding techniques, drought resistance traits could potentially be introduced through a process of interbreeding, alleviating both public concerns about GM food stock, as well as introducing drought resistance to commercial varieties of the plant as quickly as possible.