@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ Brilhaus, D., Bräutigam, A., Mettler-Altmann, T., Winter, K., and Weber, A.P.M.
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@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ Brilhaus, D., Bräutigam, A., Mettler-Altmann, T., Winter, K., and Weber, A.P.M.
https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.15.01076
https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.15.01076
## Abstract
Drought tolerance is a key factor for agriculture in the 21st century as it is a major determinant of plant survival in natural ecosystems as well as crop productivity. Plants have evolved a range of mechanisms to cope with drought, including a specialized type of photosynthesis termed Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). CAM is associated with stomatal closure during the day as atmospheric CO₂ is assimilated primarily during the night, thus reducing transpirational water loss. The tropical herbaceous perennial species *Talinum triangulare* is capable of transitioning, in a facultative, reversible manner, from C₃ photosynthesis to weakly expressed CAM in response to drought stress. The transcriptional regulation of this transition has been studied. Combining mRNA-Seq with targeted metabolite measurements, we found highly elevated levels of CAM-cycle enzyme transcripts and their metabolic products in *T. triangulare* leaves upon water deprivation. The carbohydrate metabolism is rewired to reduce the use of reserves for growth to support the CAM-cycle and the synthesis of compatible solutes. This large-scale expression dataset of drought-induced CAM demonstrates transcriptional regulation of the C₃–CAM transition. We identified candidate transcription factors to mediate this photosynthetic plasticity, which may contribute in the future to the design of more drought-tolerant crops via engineered CAM.