Fig. 5

Improved drought tolerance and stomatal aperture analysis in 35S:GmNFYA5 Arabidopsis plants. (A) Assessment of drought tolerance in 35S:GmNFYA5 Arabidopsis plants. Three-week-old plants were grown without water for 14 days, followed by re-watering for 7 days. Drought resistance of 35S:GmNFYA5 Arabidopsis plants was assayed by capability to resume growth when returned to normal conditions after drought stress. (B) GmNFYA5 transcript detected in 35S:GmNFYA5 Arabidopsis lines. Expression levels were normalized to that of Tub8. Transcript of GmNFYA5 in WT plants was set at 1.0; SD for three biological replicates is represented by error bars. (C-G) Measurements of survival rate, concentrations of ABA, RWC, water loss, and SWP in 35S:GmNFYA5 Arabidopsis and WT lines. (H-I) Stomatal apertures in 35S:GmNFYA5 Arabidopsis and WT plants with zero and 10 μM ABA treatments. Width/length of the stomatal aperture was measured using the ruler tool in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Scale bar, 5 μm. Data represent mean SD for three biological replicates (n = 54). Significant differences P < 0.05 are indicated by different letters above the columns