Drought Tolerance

Drought is the undisputed number one constraint on crop productivity; it is estimated that global crop losses due to water limitation exceed $10 billion annually. Between 1978 and 1995, average crop losses due to drought in the US exceed $1.2 billion each year. A major priority, therefore, is to develop crop varieties that can grow efficiently and maintain yield with lower levels of irrigation. Mendel has identified several genes that confer greatly improved drought tolerance and water use efficiency on a wide variety of crops. Transgenic plants carrying these genes have greatly enhanced ability to grow under limited water supply without experiencing the same deleterious effects that occur in unmodified plants. Of these, one of the most promising is the NF-YB transcription factor; this protein comprises part of the plants native response to drought conditions. NF-YB has now been demonstrated to be effective in a range of different plants species, spanning both monocots and dicots. Based on work from our collaboration with Monsanto, we recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that NF-YB significantly enhances the yield of maize plants grown under water limited field conditions (Nelson et al., 2007, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104: 16450-16455)