African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 1 (2), pp. 28-38, December 2002

ISSN 1684-5315  © 2002 Academic Journals  

MINIREVIEW

Physiological and molecular insights into drought tolerance

Sagadevan G Mundree^*, Bienyameen Baker, Shaheen Mowla, Shaun Peters, Saberi Marais, Clare Vander Willigen, Kershini Govender, Alice Maredza, Samson Muyanga, Jill M Farrant and Jennifer A Thomson

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701 South Africa

*Corresponding author; e-mail: mundree@science.uct.ac.za; tel: (021) 650-3263; fax: (021) 689-7573

Accepted 8 November 2002

Water is a major limiting factor in world agriculture. In general, most crop plants are highly sensitive to even a mild dehydration stress. There are however, a few genera of plants unique to Southern Africa, called “resurrection plants” which can tolerate extreme water loss or desiccation. We have used Xerophyta viscosa, a representative of the monocotyledonous resurrection plants to isolate genes that are associated with osmotic stress tolerance. Several genes that are differentially expressed, and that confer functional sufficiency to osmotically-stressed Escherichia coli are being studied at the molecular and biochemical levels. In this review, we use this as a basis to discuss the physiological and molecular insights into drought tolerance.