Dynamic control of plant water use using designed ABA receptor agonists

  • Science. 2019 Oct 25;366(6464):eaaw8848. doi: 10.1126/science.aaw8848.
Aditya S Vaidya  1  2 ,  Jonathan D M Helander  1  2 ,  Francis C Peterson  3 ,  Dezi Elzinga  1  2 ,  Wim Dejonghe  1  2 ,  Amita Kaundal  1  4 ,  Sang-Youl Park  1  2 ,  Zenan Xing  1  2 ,  Ryousuke Mega  5 ,  Jun Takeuchi  6  7 ,  Bardia Khanderahoo  1  2 ,  Steven Bishay  1  2 ,  Brian F Volkman  3 ,  Yasushi Todoroki  6  7 ,  Masanori Okamoto  8  9 ,  Sean R Cutler  10  2
Affiliations
  • 1. Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
  • 2. Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
  • 3. Department of Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
  • 4. Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA.
  • 5. Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, 1390 Hamasaka, Tottori 680-0001, Japan.
  • 6. Faculty of Agriculture, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka 422-8529, Japan.
  • 7. Research Institute of Green Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka 422-8529, Japan.
  • 8. Center for Bioscience Research and Education, Utsunomiya University, 350 Mine, Utsunomiya, Tochigi 321-8505, Japan.
  • 9. PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan.
  • 10. Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA. [email protected].
PMID: 31649167 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw8848
Abstract

Drought causes crop losses worldwide, and its impact is expected to increase as the world warms. This has motivated the development of small-molecule tools for mitigating the effects of drought on agriculture. We show here that current leads are limited by poor bioactivity in wheat, a widely grown staple crop, and in tomato. To address this limitation, we combined virtual screening, x-ray crystallography, and structure-guided design to develop opabactin (OP), an Abscisic acid (ABA) mimic with up to an approximately sevenfold increase in receptor affinity relative to ABA and up to 10-fold greater activity in vivo. Studies in Arabidopsis thaliana reveal a role of the type III receptor PYRABACTIN RESISTANCE-LIKE 2 for the antitranspirant efficacy of OP. Thus, virtual screening and structure-guided optimization yielded newly discovered agonists for manipulating crop abiotic stress tolerance and water use.

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