who dose agony of plant leave us indifferent ?
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When confronted with water limitation, plants actively reprogram their metabolism and growth. Recently, it has become clear that growing tissues show specific and highly dynamic responses to drought, which differ from the well-studied responses in mature tissues. Here, we provide an overview of recent advances in understanding shoot growth regulation in water-limiting conditions. Of special interest is the balance between maintained growth and competitiveness on the one hand and ensured survival on the other hand. A number of master regulators controlling this balance have been identified, such as DELLAs and APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR-type transcription factors. The possibilities of engineering or breeding crops that maintain growth in periods of mild drought, while still being able to activate protective tolerance mechanisms, are discussed.
Due to their sessile lifestyle, plants are continuously exposed to changing environmental conditions that could potentially threaten survival. Therefore, complex mechanisms have evolved to accurately monitor the environment and very dynamically reprogram metabolism and growth. Water availability, which can be constrained by drought, salinity, or freezing, is one of the major factors limiting plant growth and development in agricultural settings (Boyer, 1982). For cereal crops, drought is the most important abiotic stress component reducing yield (Araus et al., 2002). A recent example is the extreme drought that affected 80% of cultivated land in the United States in 2012 and reduced yields of maize (Zea mays) by 27.5% and of soybean (Glycine max) by 10%, causing enormous economic damage (USDA, 2013). The effects of water limitation will likely worsen in the coming decades due to climate change and the growing scarcity of fresh water available for irrigation, mostly caused by urbanization and the depletion of aquifers, which are currently supplying water to grow food for at least 400 million people in India and China (Jury and Vaux, 2005; Pennisi, 2008). Although selection for high yield potential has also improved yields under water-limiting conditions, especially for mild to moderate drought, there still is a large “yield gap” that is difficult to tackle with classical phenotype-driven breeding (Cattivelli et al., 2008).