Drought tolerance

[1][2][3] Some plants are naturally adapted to dry conditions, surviving with protection mechanisms such as desiccation tolerance, detoxification, or repair of xylem embolism.

[3] Other plants, specifically crops like corn, wheat, and rice, have become increasingly tolerant to drought with new varieties created via genetic engineering.

Some of these interactions include stomatal conductance, carotenoid degradation and anthocyanin accumulation, the intervention of osmoprotectants (such as sucrose, glycine, and proline), ROS-scavenging enzymes.

[5][6][7][8] The molecular control of drought tolerance is also very complex and is influenced other factors such as environment and the developmental stage of the plant.

These TFs bind to specific cis-elements to induce the expression of targeted stress-inducible genes, allowing for products to be transcribed that help with stress response and tolerance.

Much of the molecular work to understand the regulation of drought tolerance has been done in Arabidopsis, helping elucidate the basic processes below.

[9] Overexpression of these genes enhance the tolerance of drought, high salinity, and low temperature in transgenic lines from Arabidopsis, rice, and tobacco.

[9] Plants in naturally arid conditions retain large amounts of biomass due to drought tolerance and can be classified into 4 categories of adaptation:[13] Many adaptations for dry conditions are structural, including the following:[14] With the frequency and severity of droughts increasing in recent years, damage to crops has become more serious, lowering the crop yield, growth, and production.

[2] Drought-tolerant plants which are developed through biotechnology enable farmers to protect their harvest and reduces losses in times of intense drought by using water more efficiently.

To bring a new genetically modified crop into the commercial market, it has been estimated to cost USD 136 million over 13 years.