bZIP TFs involved in drought stress response
Drought is an adverse environmental factor that threatens plant growth and development. Many plant bZIP family members are involved in response to drought stress. Series of studies have shown that many rice bZIP transcription factors are involved in drought resistance. Liu et al. (2014b) found that riceOsbZIP71 directly binds to the promoters of OsNHX1 andCOR413-TM1 and activates their transcription so as to enhance drought resistance of transgenic rice. Except rice, some drought-related bZIP transcription factor genes cloned in other plants also significantly enhanced the drought resistance of transgenic crops. Overexpression of maize ABP9 confers excellent drought tolerance to transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plant (Wang et al., 2017a). During seed germination and plant development, transgenic ramie plants overexpressing ramie BnbZIP2 were more tolerant to salt stress than wild-type and more sensitive to drought stress (Huang et al., 2016). In addition, overexpression of transcription factors such asArabidopsis thaliana ABF3 (Wang et al., 2016b) and wheat TabZIP60 (Zhang et al., 2015b) in plants can significantly improve the drought resistance of transgenic plants. On the contrary, Lim et al. (2018) found that the pepper bZIP transcription factor CaDILZ1 plays a negative regulatory role in response to drought stress.