Researchers from the University of Delhi South Campus and the National
Institute of Plant Genome Research in India report that overexpression of
OsSAP10 leads to water deficit tolerance in Arabidopsis. Their findings are
published in Plant Cell Reports.



The function of stress-associated proteins (SAPs) in multiple abiotic
stresses have been clearly established through several studies. However,
their mechanisms of action are still to be elucidated. To provide more
insights on this, stress-inducible rice gene OsSAP10 was picked for
functional and molecular characterization, particularly during water-deficit
scenarios.



Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing OsSAP10 were developed and
analyzed. The plants exhibited enhanced tolerance to water-deficit stress
during various stages of growth and development. The transgenic plants also
showed improved survival rate, increased relative water content, decreased
water loss, and hypersensitivity to ABA treatment. Further analyses revealed
that OsSAP10 interacts with proteins linked in the proteasomal pathway.



The findings of the study suggest that OsSAP10 has the potential to improve
water-deficit stress tolerance in plants, and positively regulates ABA and
water-deficit stress signaling through protein-protein interactions.



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