ABSTRACT
Background With the increasing demands of industrial, municipal and agricultural consumption on dwindling water supplies [1], the development of sustainable farming practices has taken higher priority. For this reason, advancement of the current understanding of plant responses to drought stress and the mechanisms involved has become a major target of research and investment, with the ultimate goal of developing crops with improved water use e ciencies and minimized droughtinduced loss of yield [2,3]. On a multi-gene scale, analysis of quantitative trait loci allows identication of genetic regions responsible for control of complex responses such as the co-ordination of the whole-plant response to water decit [4,5]. In parallel to this, as our comprehension of the molecular signaling events leading to drought responses has increased, genetic engineering techniques now also permit the manipulation of these response mechanisms through targeted overexpression or suppression of specic genes [3,6].
