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The activation of the abscisic acid (ABA) signaling pathway reduces water loss from plants challenged by drought stress. The effect of drought-induced ABA signaling on the defense and nutrition allocation of plants is largely unknown. We postulated that these changes can affect herbivorous insects. We studied the effects of drought on different feeding stages of pea aphids in the wild-type A17 of Medicago truncatula and ABA signaling pathway mutant sta-1. We examined the impact of drought on plant water status, induced plant defense signaling via the abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), and salicylic acid (SA) pathways, and on the host nutritional quality in terms of leaf free amino acid content. During the penetration phase of aphid feeding, drought decreased epidermis/ mesophyll resistance but increased mesophyll/phloem resistance of A17 but not sta-1 plants. Quantification of transcripts associated with ABA, JA and SA signaling indicated that the drought-induced up-regulation of ABA signaling decreased the SA-dependent defense but increased the JA-dependent defense in A17 plants. During the phloem-feeding phase, drought had little effect on the amino acid concentrations and the associated aphid phloem-feeding parameters in both plant genotypes. In the xylem absorption stage, drought decreased xylem absorption time of aphids in both genotypes because of decreased water potential. Nevertheless, the activation of the ABA signaling pathway increased water-use efficiency of A17 plants by decreasing the stomatal aperture and transpiration rate. In contrast, the water potential of sta-1 plants (unable to close stomata) was too low to support xylem absorption activity of aphids; the aphids on sta-1 plants had the highest hemolymph osmolarity and lowest abundance under drought conditions. Taken together this study illustrates the significance of cross-talk between biotic-abiotic signaling pathways in plant-aphid interaction, and reveals the mechanisms leading to alter aphid fecundity in water stresses plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stomatal aperture, transpiration, leaf growth, hydraulic conductance, and concentration of abscisic acid in the xylem sap ([ABA]xyl) vary rapidly with time of day. They follow deterministic relations with environmental conditions and interact in such a way that a change in any one of them affects all the others. Hence, approaches based on measurements of one variable at a given time or on paired correlations are prone to a confusion of effects, in particular for studying their genetic variability. A dynamic model allows the simulation of environmental effects on the variables, and of multiple feedbacks between them at varying time resolutions. This paper reviews the control of water movement through the plant, stomatal aperture and growth, and translates them into equations in a model. It includes recent progress in understanding the intrinsic and environmental controls of tissue hydraulic conductance as a function of transpiration rate, circadian rhythms, and [ABA]xyl. Measured leaf water potential is considered as the water potential of a capacitance representing mature tissues, which reacts more slowly to environmental cues than xylem water potential and expansive growth. Combined with equations for water and ABA fluxes, it results in a dynamic model able to simulate variables with genotype-specific parameters. It allows adaptive roles for hydraulic processes to be proposed, in particular the circadian oscillation of root hydraulic conductance. The script of the model, in the R language, is included together with appropriate documentation and examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the impact of a decline of leaf internal CO2 molar ratio on nitrate reductase (NR) and sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS) activities, leaves of wheat (Triticum durum) were submitted to different treatments: slow or rapid dehydration and decline in ambient CO2 concentration and abscisic acid (ABA) supply. In agreement with the literature, NR activity of slowly dehydrated leaves was inhibited by about 50% when net CO2 assimilation (An) decreased by 45%. NR activity of stressed leaves kept 4 h in air containing 5% CO2 or after 2 d of re-watering was only partially restored. NR activity was slightly dependent on ambient CO2 molar ratio, declining by 30% when non-stressed leaves were kept in CO2-free air for 4 h. The decline of NR activity after ABA supply (through the transpiration stream) and after rapid dehydration of non-stressed leaves was comparable with the decrease observed under low CO2 treatment. Overall, these data suggest that a drought-induced decrease of the leaf internal CO2 concentration is only part of the signal triggering the decline of NR activity. In disagreement with most of the literature, SPS activity increased during slow dehydration, being stimulated by 30% when An declined by 40%. SPS activity of stressed leaves kept 4 h in air containing 5% CO2 or 2 d after re-watering was slightly increased or unchanged, respectively. By contrast to NR activity, SPS activity of well-hydrated leaves was hardly affected by low CO2. Increased SPS activity was mimicked, in non-stressed leaves, by a rapid dehydration within 4 h and by ABA fed through the transpiration stream. In durum wheat, the increase in SPS activity could be linked to ABA-based signalling during a drought stress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]