Calcium-regulated Transcription Factors Mediating Carbon Metabolism in Response to Drought
Authors: Fromm Hillel , Hasegawa Paul Michael , Fait Aaron 
Published: March 2022

Original objectives: The long-term goal of the proposed research is to elucidate the transcription factors, genes and metabolic networks involved in carbon metabolism and partitioning in response to water deficit. The proposed research focuses on the GTLcalcium/calmodulinbindingTFs and the gene and metabolic networks modulated by these TFs in Arabidopsis thaliana. The specific objectives are as follows. Objective-1 (USA): Physiological analyses of GTL1 loss- and gain-of-function plants under water sufficient and drought stress conditions Objective 2 (USA / Israel-TAU): Characterizion of GTL target genes and bioinformatic analysis of data to eulcidate gene-network topology. Objective-3 (Israel-TAU): Regulation of GTLmediated transcription by Ca²⁺/calmodulin: mechanism and biological significance. Objective-4 (Israel-BGU): Metabolic networks and carbon partitioning in response to drought. Additional direction: In the course of the project we added another direction, which was reported in the 2nd annual report, to elucidate genes controlling drought avoidance. The TAU team has isolated a few unhydrotropic (hyd) mutants and are in the process of mapping these mutations (of hyd13 and hyd15; see last year's report for a description of these mutants under salt stress) in the Arabidopsis genome by map-based cloning and deep sequencing. For this purpose, each hyd mutant was crossed with a wild type plant of the Landsberg ecotype, and at the F2 stage, 500-700 seedlings showing the unhydrotropic phenotype were collected separately and pooled DNA samples were subkected to the Illumina deep sequencing technology. Bioinformatics were used to identify the exact genomic positions of the mutations (based on a comparison of the genomic sequences of the two Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes (Columbia and Landsberg). Background: To feed the 9 billion people or more, expected to live on Earth by the mid 21st century, the production of high-quality food must increase substantially. Based on a 2009 Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security, a target of 70% more global food production by the year 2050 was marked, an unprecedented food-production growth rate. Importantly, due to the larger areas of low-yielding land globally, low-yielding environments offer the greatest opportunity for substantial increases in global food production. Nowadays, 70% of the global available water is used by agriculture, and 40% of the world food is produced from irrigated soils. Therefore, much needs to be done towards improving the efficiency of water use by plants, accompanied by increased crop yield production under water-limiting conditions. Major conclusions, solutions and achievements: We established that AtGTL1 (Arabidopsis thaliana GT-2 LIKE1) is a focal determinant in water deficit (drought) signaling and tolerance, and water use efficiency (WUE). The GTL1 transcription factor is an upstream regulator of stomatal development as a transrepressor of AtSDD1, which encodes a subtilisin protease that activates a MAP kinase pathway that negatively regulates stomatal lineage and density. GTL1 binds to the core GT3 cis-element in the SDD1 promoter and transrepresses its expression under water-sufficient conditions. GTL1 loss-of-function mutants have reduced stomatal number and transpiration, and enhanced drought tolerance and WUE. In this case, higher WUE under water sufficient conditions occurs without reduction in absolute biomass accumulation or carbon assimilation, indicating that gtl1-mediated effects on stomatal conductance and transpiration do not substantially affect CO₂ uptake. These results are proof-of-concept that fine-tuned regulation of stomatal density can result in drought tolerance and higher WUE with maintenance of yield stability. Implications: Accomplishments during the IS-4243-09R project provide unique tools for continued discovery research to enhance plant drought tolerance and WUE.