MicroRNA compositions and methods for enhancing plant resistance to abiotic stress

摘要

A method of increasing tolerance of a plant to an abiotic stress or increasing biomass, vigor or yield of a plant is disclosed. The method comprising upregulating within the plant an exogenous polynucleotide of a microRNA or a precursor thereof, wherein the microRNA is selected from the group consisting of miR-156, miR-169, miR-164, miR-159, miR-167, miR-529, miR-168, ppt-miR395, sof-miR408a, ath-miR408, miR-1039, miR-1091, miR-1118, miR-1134 and miR-1129, thereby increasing the tolerance of the plant to the abiotic stress or increasing the biomass, vigor or yield of the plant.

主权项

1. A method of increasing tolerance of a corn plant to an abiotic stress selected from the group consisting of drought and nitrogen deficiency, the method comprising:
(a) expressing within the corn plant a transgenic polynucleotide of a microRNA or a precursor thereof, wherein said microRNA is a corn miR-167, (b) growing the corn plant resultant of step (a) under an abiotic stress condition selected from the group consisting of: drought stress and nitrogen deficiency; and (c) selecting the corn plant resultant of step (b) for an increased tolerance to an abiotic stress condition selected from the group consisting of: drought stress and nitrogen deficiency, thereby increasing the tolerance of the corn plant to the abiotic stress.