The Role of Transcription Factors in Wheat Under Different Abiotic Stresses - Abiotic Stress: Plant Responses and Applications in Agriculture - page 377

have been shown to improve crop yield under field conditions when they are over-expressed
in transgenic plants (Table 1). These studies clearly demonstrate that genetic manipulation of
stress-responsive transcription factors has potential for improvement of crop yield in the
future, including wheat.

Gene description Host Expression mode Acquired traits Reference

Rice SNAC1 (NAC) Rice Constitutive OE Improved spikelet fertility under

drought and reduced transpiration

21

Maize NF-YB2 (NF-YB) Maize Constitutive OE Less wilting, delayed senescence, higher

photosynthesis rate and improved yield
under drought

50

ZAT10 (C 2 H 2 zinc finger) rice Drought-inducible or

constitutive OE

Improved spikelet fertility and grain
yield per plant under drought

76

CBF3 (AP2) rice Drought-inducible OE Improved spikelet fertility and grain

yield per plant under drought

76

Rice AP37 (AP2) Rice Constitutive OE Enhanced drought resistance and grain

yield under severe drought conditions

53

Rice NAC10 (AP2) Rice Root-specific OE Enhanced drought resistance and grain

yield under both normal and drought
conditions

26

Rice NAC9 (AP2) Rice Root-specific OE Enhanced drought resistance and grain

yield under both normal and drought
conditions

60

OE = over-expression

Table 1. Transgenic crops with over-expression of a transcription factor improve yield under field conditions

8. Conclusion and prospective

Abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity and low temperature adversely affect the growth and
productivity of plants. Successful breeding of stress-tolerant varieties will be vital to ensure
food supply in areas that are prone to such stresses. Recent advances towards identifying
potential abiotic stress tolerance genes have been made. Many TFs and other regulatory genes
involved in stress responses have been identified, giving rise to the idea that plants have
developed flexible molecular and cellular response mechanisms to respond to various abiotic
stresses. bZIP, WRKY, bHLH, MYB and NAC transcription factors represent the major groups
of regulatory genes of which some members are found to be involved in abiotic stress responses
in plants. To date, the functions of a number of abiotic stress-responsive transcription factor
genes have been studied in many different species, including wheat. Recent studies have