Mutant drought phenotype investigation : a look into effects of protein prenylation on water utilization in conditions of varying soil saturation and gene knockout.

Abstract

Plants respond to environmental stress, such as drought, with increases in levels of Abscisic Acid (ABA). This stress response allows greater survival rates but results in the plants producing lower seed yield and biomass. Certain mutant strains of the Arabidopsis plant have been identified with mutations in coding regions involved in the formation of the α and β subunits of PFT and PGGT-I genes involved in protein prenylation. We explored the possibility of these mutant strains to better preserve seed yield and plant biomass under drought stressing conditions in comparison to the wild type (Columbia) strain, based on the mutants’ hypersensitivity to ABA. Our data did not support the hypothesis that these mutant strains offer better preservation in these categories, and the functioning of the PFT and PGGT-I genes may be different than originally proposed