Wen Yuan Song
University of Florida,USA
Title: Drought Tolerance- Mediated by the Rice Ubiquitin Ligase OsDT1
Biography
Biography: Wen Yuan Song
Abstract
Drought stress is a major limitation to crop production in the worldwide. We have identified a ubiquitin ligase, OsD T1, that can aid drought survival of rice. The OsDt1 gene is strongly induced by water deficit. While down-regulation increases drought sensitivity, overexpression of OsDt1 allows plants to confer strong tolerance to water s tress. RNA –sequence assays identified a total of 307 differentially expressed genes (DEGs ) between the OsDt1 over-expression line OXDt1-70 and the empty -vector control line A36 under normal conditions. Among them, 24% (50 up-regulated and 24 do n-regulated) DEGs have been reported previously to be associated with water stress or drought regulator s. The OsD 1 protein localizes to both the plasma membrane and nucleus in rice cells. Protein blot analysis suggests that the ubiquitin ligase activity of OsDT1 might be active in the nuclear pools. Yeast two- hybrid analysis shows that OsDT1 interacts with a negative regulator of drought response. This results suggest that OsDT1 function as a key regulator of drought survival in rice.