作物耐旱性研究获重大突破

When a plant encounters drought, it does its best to cope with this stress by activating¹ a set of protein molecules² called receptors（受体，感受器） . These receptors, once activated³, turn on processes that help the plant survive the stress. A team of plant cell biologists has discovered how to rewire this cellular⁴ machinery⁵ to heighten the plants' stress response -- a finding that can be used to engineer crops to give them a better shot at surviving and displaying increased yield under drought conditions.

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The discovery, made in the laboratory of Sean Cutler, an associate professor of plant cell biology at the University of California, Riverside, brings drought-tolerant crops a step closer to becoming a reality. #

It's the hormones⁷ #

When plants encounter drought, they naturally produce abscisic acid（脱落酸） , a stress hormone⁶ that helps them cope with the drought conditions. Specifically, the hormone turns on receptors in the plants, resulting in a suite⁸ of beneficial changes that help the plants survive. These changes typically include guard cells closing on leaves to reduce water loss, cessation（停止） of plant growth to reduce water consumption and myriad⁹（无数的） other stress-relieving responses. #

The discovery by Cutler and others of abscisic acid receptors, which orchestrate these responses, was heralded¹⁰（通报，预示） by Science magazine as a breakthrough of the year in 2009 due to the importance of the receptor proteins to drought and stress tolerance¹¹. #