Abstract
Desiccation tolerant organisms have the ability to resist severe drought by surviving drying to below 0.1 g of water per gram dry weight and resume normal metabolism upon rehydration. Most angiosperm species are drought sensitive and do not survive water contents below 60–30%. Although desiccation tolerance (DT) is common in seeds, DT in other plant organs is restricted to a unique group of ‘resurrection plants’ which are able to acquire DT in their vegetative tissues and survive repeated cycles of desiccation and rehydration. Desiccation tolerant Eragrostis nindensis is an African resurrection grass which displays DT only in its younger leaves whereas the older leaves are senescent and lack DT. Its close relative Eragrostis tef is a staple grain crop in Eastern Africa. This species is resilient but lacks DT. These two species constitute a unique combination to study the molecular mechanism and regulation of vegetative DT. Following a pilot physiological and morphological baseline analysis of DT in these species, our objectives are to: (1) sequence the genome of E. nindensis; (2) analyse transcriptomes and metabolomes of both E. nindensis and E. tef during de- and re-hydration; (3) perform advanced predictive network analysis based on co-expression and transcriptional regulation; (4) perform functional analysis of candidate genes/clusters using CRISPR/CAS9. This molecular dissection of vegetative DT shall ultimately provide tools to enhance drought tolerance of important crops.
Netherlands