CRISPR/Cas9-targeted mutagenesis of OsERA1 confers enhanced responses to abscisic acid and drought stress and increased primary root growth under nonstressed conditions in rice

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243376
• Publication Date: 2020-12-03T19:30:11Z
• Authors: Takuya Ogata; Takuma Ishizaki; Miki Fujita; Yasunari Fujita
• Keywords: Drought Tolerance

Abscisic acid (ABA) signaling components play an important role in the drought stress response plants. Arabidopsis thaliana ENHANCED RESPONSE TO ABA1 ( ERA1 ) encodes β-subunit of farnesyltransferase and regulates ABA dehydration response. Therefore, is candidate gene for enhancing tolerance numerous crops. However, a rice Oryza sativa homolog has not been characterized previously. Here, we show that osera1 mutant lines, harboring CRISPR/Cas9-induced frameshift mutations, exhibit similar leaf growth as control plants but increased primary root growth. The lines also display sensitivity to enhanced through stomatal regulation. These results illustrate OsERA1 negative regulator under nonstressed conditions responses rice. findings improve our understanding suggest strategy genetically