Physiological and molecular insights into drought tolerance.

Mundree, S; Baker, B; Mowla, S; Peters, S; Marais, S; Vander Willigen, C; Govender, K; Maredza, A; Muyanga, S; Farrant, J; Thomson, J

Physiological and molecular insights into drought tolerance.

Journal Article

2002

Journal Title

African Journal of Biotechnology

Link to Journal

http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/

Publisher

Academic Journals

Publisher

University of Cape Town

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Abstract

Water is a major limiting factor in world agriculture. In general, most crop plants are highly sensitive to even a mild dehydration stress. There are however, a few genera of plants unique to Southern Africa, called "resurrection plants" which can tolerate extreme water loss or desiccation. We have used Xerophyta viscosa, a representative of the monocotyledonous resurrection plants to isolate genes that are associated with osmotic stress tolerance. Several genes that are differentially expressed, and that confer functional sufficiency to osmotically-stressed Escherichia coli are being studied at the molecular and biochemical levels. In this review, we use this as a basis to discuss the physiological and molecular insights into drought tolerance.