ABA biosynthesis defective mutants reduce some free amino acids accumulation under drought stress in tomato leaves in comparison with Arabidopsis plants tissues

The ability of plants to tolerate drought conditions is crucial for plant survival and crop production worldwide. The present data confirm previous findings reported existence of a strong relation between abscisic acid (ABA) content and amino acid accumulation as response water stress which is one of the most important defense mechanism activated during water stress in many plant species. Therefore, free amino acids were measured to determine any changes in the metabolite pool in relation to ABA content. The ABA defective mutants of Arabidopsis plants were subjected to leaf dehydration for Arabidopsis on Whatman 3 mm filter paper at room temperature while, tomato mutant plants were subjected to drought stresses for tomato plants by withholding water. To understand the signal transduction mechanisms underlying osmotic stress-regulating gene induction and activation of osmoprotectant free amino acid synthesizing genes, we carried out a genetic screen to isolate Arabidopsis mutants defective in ABA biosynthesis under drought stress conditions. The present results revealed an accumulation of specific free amino acid in water stressed tissues in which majority of free amino acids are increased especially those playing an osmoprotectant role such as proline and glycine. Drought stress related Amino acids contents are significantly reduced in the mutants under water stress condition while they are increased significantly in the wild types plants. The exhibited higher accumulation of other amino acids under stressed condition in the mutant plants suggest that, their expressions are regulated in an ABA independent pathways. In addition, free amino acids content changes during water stress condition suggest their contribution in drought toleration as common compatible osmolytes.