Dynamic control of plant water use using designed ABA receptor agonists

Aditya S Vaidya; Jonathan D M Helander; Francis C Peterson; Dezi Elzinga; Wim Dejonghe; Amita Kaundal; Sang-Youl Park; Zenan Xing; Ryousuke Mega; Jun Takeuchi; Bardia Khanderahoo; Steven Bishay; Brian F Volkman; Yasushi Todoroki; Masanori Okamoto; Sean R Cutler

doi:10.1126/science.aaw8848

Dynamic control of plant water use using designed ABA receptor agonists

Science. 2019 Oct 25;366(6464):eaaw8848. doi: 10.1126/science.aaw8848.

Authors

Aditya S Vaidya^{1

2}, Jonathan D M Helander^{1

2}, Francis C Peterson³, Dezi Elzinga^{1

2}, Wim Dejonghe^{1

2}, Amita Kaundal^{1

4}, Sang-Youl Park^{1

2}, Zenan Xing^{1

2}, Ryousuke Mega⁵, Jun Takeuchi^{6

7}, Bardia Khanderahoo^{1

2}, Steven Bishay^{1

2}, Brian F Volkman³, 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. sean.cutler@ucr.edu.

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.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Abscisic Acid / analogs & derivatives*
Arabidopsis / drug effects*
Arabidopsis / physiology
Arabidopsis Proteins / agonists*
Benzamides / chemistry
Benzamides / pharmacology*
Cyclohexanes / chemistry
Cyclohexanes / pharmacology*
Droughts
Hormones / chemistry
Hormones / pharmacology*
Models, Molecular
Plant Transpiration / drug effects
Receptors, Cell Surface / agonists*
Solanum lycopersicum / physiology
Stress, Physiological / drug effects*
Triticum / physiology
Water / physiology*

Substances

Arabidopsis Proteins
Benzamides
Cyclohexanes
Hormones
PYL10 protein, Arabidopsis
Receptors, Cell Surface
opabactin
Water
Abscisic Acid