Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Oct;38(10):753-757.
doi: 10.1071/FP11101.

Drought resistance - is it really a complex trait?

Drought resistance - is it really a complex trait?

Abraham Blum. Funct Plant Biol. 2011 Oct.

Abstract

Drought resistance is being increasingly labelled as being a 'complex trait', especially with the recent expansion of research into its genomics. There is a danger that this label may turn into an axiom that is liable to damage education on the subject as well as research and the delivery of solutions to the farmer. This opinionated review examines whether there is grounds for such an axiom. Drought resistance is labelled as a 'complex trait' mainly when viewed by molecular biologists from the gene discovery platform. This platform is capable of expressing hundreds and thousands of drought-responsive genes, which are up- or down-regulated under dehydration stress according to growth stage, plant organ or even time of day. Sorting out the 'grain out of the chaff' in order to identify the function of the candidate genes towards drought resistance is difficult and, thus, the idea that drought resistance is complex is raised. However, when drought resistance is viewed from the physiological and agronomic whole-plant and crop platform, it appears much simpler; its control, whether constitutive or adaptive, is rather obvious with respect to manipulation in breeding and crop management. The most important and common drought resistance traits function to maintain plant hydration under drought stress due to effective use of water (EUW). The state of our knowledge and the achievements in breeding for drought resistance do not support labelling drought resistance as a complex trait. The genomics road towards drought resistance is complex but we already know that the destination is much simpler.

PubMed Disclaimer