Abstract
ABA is a phytohormone that plays an essential role in drought response in plants. A lot of drought inducible genes are regulated by ABA signal and production. There are 6 genes encoding a 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED), a key enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of ABA in Arabidopsis genome. In AtNCEDs, NCED3 was required for drought inducible ABA accumulation that is essential for drought avoidance.
In the present study, we performed metabolic profiling and transcriptome analysis of NCED3 knockout mutant (nced3-2) under drought stress. Metabolic profiling using GC/MS and CE/MS showed a drought-inducible accumulation of various types of amino acid, small organic compound and sugar were reduced in the nced3-2. Microarray analysis also showed that about 50% of drought-inducible genes were reduced in nced3-2. Based on these experiment, we will discuss the biological function of ABA involved in metabolic networks of plant in drought stress response.
