| dc.description.abstract | As a result of global climate change and world’s population rapid growth, increase in
the frequency and intensity of drought occurrence leads to a further yield loss in
agriculture. Two-component systems (TCSs) have been reported to function in
regulating plant growth, development and responses to drought. From previous
research on a subset of TCS members in soybean, expression of GmRR34 was found
to be upregulated in roots of the drought-tolerant soybean cultivar in comparison with
that of the drought-sensitive cultivar under drought conditions. Subsequent study
using Arabidopsis ectopically expressing GmRR34 showed that the transgenic plants
acquired better survival rate under water deficit condition. Herein, this project was
carried out to further investigate the molecular regulation mechanism of GmRR34 in
plant response to drought condition in these ectopic expression lines of Arabidopsis.
The obtained data from quantitative RT-PCR suggested that the over-expression of
GmRR34 could contribute to the improved drought tolerance of the transgenic plants
by altering expression of several well-known drought-related genes, including CSD1,
CAT1, LEA14, RD29A and RAB18. Therefore, this study provided extra evidence for
GmRR34 as a positive regulator in mediating drought tolerance in plants. Future indepth investigations on GmRR34 biological functions should be continued to obtain
comprehensive scientific knowledge about GmRR34 as well as serve as platform for
generation of crops with enhanced drought tolerance by genetic engineering. | en_US |
