Experts from Seoul National University (SNU) revealed the role of
ricetranscription factor/NAC17/in drought tolerance. Their findings are
reported in/Plant Science/.

Land plants have evolved to have a complex mechanism to deal with
droughtstress, which is controlled by multifaceted signaling networks,
which include transcriptional regulation. Thus, the SNU researchers
characterized the function of/OsNAC17/, a member of the NAC
transcription factor family, in drought tolerance.

When/OsNAC17/was over-expressed, the plants exhibited tolerance to
drought; while knocking it out led to susceptibility to drought stress.
Further analyses revealed that/OsNAC17/controls the genes involved in
lignin formation in leaves and roots. These findings imply
that/OsNAC17/contributes to drought tolerance through lignin production
in rice.

[www.sciencedirect.com]#!