Extended Data Fig. 7: AKT2var expression not only enhances cassava growth under standard conditions, but also significantly improves the response to drought stress.
From: Engineering vascular potassium transport increases yield and drought resilience of cassava
Plants from EV and AKT2var lines were grown, treated for drought and sampled according to the schedule shown in Supplementary Fig. 9. Six biological replicates were analyzed per line. (A, B) Phenotypes of shoots and roots from plants of EV lines (EV-4221, EV-4234, and EV-4243) and AKT2var lines (AKT2var-4261, AKT2var-4262, and AKT2var-4264) at intermediate harvest (IH). (C, D) Stem, leaf, and root dry weights were measured at intermediate harvest under either standard or drought stress conditions. For EV-4221 n = 7, EV-4234 n = 6, EV-4243 n = 7, AKT2var-4261 n = 6, AKT2var-4262 n = 5 and AKT2var-4264 n = 7 biological replicates were analysed. (E, F) Phenotypes of shoots and roots from plants of EV lines (EV-4221, 4234, and 4243), and AKT2var lines (AKT2var-4261, 4262, and 4264) at final harvest (FH). (G, H) Stem, leaf, and root dry weights were measured at final harvest under either control, or after drought stress conditions. For EV-4221 n = 10,9 EV-4234 n = 6,6 EV-4243 n = 7,6 AKT2var-4261 n = 7,6, AKT2var-4262 n = 5,5 and AKT2var-4264 n = 10,10 biological replicates were analysed. In box plots, centre line represents the median and plus (+) the mean, box edges delineate first and third quartiles, whiskers extend to maximum and minimum values and dots show individual values. Different lower-case letters indicate statistical significance, as calculated by one-way ANOVA with a post-hoc Tukey HSD test (p < 0.05).
