Co-overexpression of OsSIZ1 and LtRCA in Arabidopsis thaliana to further improve heat and drought tolerance

Crop production is threatened by abiotic stresses worldwide. Heat and drought are major abiotic factors, which account for significant yield losses. The frequency and severity of heat and drought episodes are already on the rise. Therefore, it is crucial to develop new strategies to improve multiple stress tolerance in plants. The rice gene OsSIZ1 was shown to confer increased tolerance to heat, drought, and salt stresses when overexpressed in transgenic plants. The RCA gene from Larrea tridentata, LtRCA, has recently been used to improve heat tolerance in Arabidopsis. In this study, we co-overexpressed OsSIZ1 and LtRCA in Arabidopsis thaliana with the intention of further improving heat and drought tolerance. The results indicated that co-overexpression of OsSIZ1 and LtRCA significantly improved plant tolerance to heat stress and combined heat and drought stresses. Most importantly, OsSIZ1 and LtRCA co-overexpressing plants were able to generate seed yield that was several magnitudes higher than that of wild-type plants under heat and drought stresses. The findings of this study would be useful to improve heat and drought tolerance in commercially important crops in the future.

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