Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet

Fuente, C de la and Grondin, A and Sine, B and Debieu, M and Belin, C and Hajjarpoor, A and Atkinson, J A and Passot, S and Salson, M and Orjuela, J and Tranchant-Dubreuil, C and Brossier, J and Steffen, M and Morgado, C and Dinh, H N and Pandey, B K and Darmau, J and Champion, A and Petitot, A and Barrachina, C and Pratlong, M and Mounier, T and Nakombo-Gbassault, P and Gantet, P and Gangashetty, P I and Guedon, Y and Vadez, V and Reichheld, J and Bennett, M J and Kane, N A and Guyomarc'H, S and Wells, D M and Vigouroux, Y and Laplaze, L (2024) Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet. eLife, 12. pp. 1-21. ISSN 2050-084X

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Abstract

Seedling root traits impact plant establishment under challenging environments. Pearl millet is one of the most heat and drought tolerant cereal crops that provides a vital food source across the sub-Saharan Sahel region. Pearl millet’s early root system features a single fast-growing primary root which we hypothesize is an adaptation to the Sahelian climate. Using crop modeling, we demonstrate that early drought stress is an important constraint in agrosystems in the Sahel where pearl millet was domesticated. Furthermore, we show that increased pearl millet primary root growth is correlated with increased early water stress tolerance in field conditions. Genetics including genome-wide association study and quantitative trait loci (QTL) approaches identify genomic regions controlling this key root trait. Combining gene expression data, re-sequencing and re-annotation of one of these genomic regions identified a glutaredoxin-encoding gene PgGRXC9 as the candidate stress resilience root growth regulator. Functional characterization of its closest Arabidopsis homolog AtROXY19 revealed a novel role for this glutaredoxin (GRX) gene clade in regulating cell elongation. In summary, our study suggests a conserved function for GRX genes in conferring root cell elongation and enhancing resilience of pearl millet to its Sahelian environment.

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Global Research Program - Accelerated Crop Improvement
CRP: UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords: root growth, drought stress tolerance, pearl millet
Subjects: Others > Drought Tolerance
Mandate crops > Millets > Pearl Millet
Depositing User: Mr Nagaraju T
Date Deposited: 05 Jul 2024 08:20
Last Modified: 05 Jul 2024 08:20
URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/12741
Official URL: https://elifesciences.org/articles/86169
Projects: UNSPECIFIED
Funders: UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement: We dedicate this article to the memory of our colleague Yann Guédon (CIRAD). This work was supported by the French Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), the French Ministry for Research and Higher Education (PhD grant to SP), the Agence National pour la Recherche (RootAdapt grant n° ANR-17-CE20-0022 to LL), the Agropolis Fondation (NewPearl grant n° AF 1301-015 in the frame of the CERES initiative and ValoRoot grant n°2202-002 to LL and Flagship Project CalClim grant no. 1802-002 to JPR) as part of the 'Investissement d'avenir' (ANR-l0-LABX-0001-0l), under the frame of I-SITE MUSE (ANR-16-IDEX-0006), by the Fondazione Cariplo (n° FC 2013-0891) and by the CGIAR Research Programme on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC). Financial support by the Access to Research Infrastructures activity in the Horizon 2020 Programme of the EU (EPPN2020 Grant Agreement 731013) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors acknowledge support from the iTrop High-performance computing platform (member of the South Green Platform) at IRD Montpellier.
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