This technology utilizes CaSIMK1, a MAP3 kinase protein (SEQ ID NO: 2) identified in the Nokgwang chili pepper cultivar that interacts with SnRK2.6—a key kinase in ABA signaling—as an active ingredient for compositions and kits designed to improve drought stress resistance, as well as methods for enhancing drought tolerance by increasing the expression or activity of this protein.
While crop yield losses due to drought are intensifying, the individual kinases involved in the process—where ABA receptors recognize signals and trigger downstream genes and ion channels through protein phosphorylation—have not been fully characterized. Consequently, although research on drought-tolerance genes and transgenic plants has been ongoing, there remains a shortage of signaling-pathway gene resources suitable for practical crop improvement.
Based on the discovery that CaSIMK1 acts as a positive regulator that strengthens the ABA signaling phosphorylation cascade by interacting with SnRK2.6, this technology is configured to use the protein encoded by the gene in SEQ ID NO: 1 as a composition or to produce transgenic chili pepper and Arabidopsis plants with increased expression. It can be applied to breeding chili peppers and solanaceous crops in drought-prone regions, developing ABA-signaling-enhanced drought-tolerant transgenic plants, and supporting seed companies' climate-adaptive variety pipelines, thereby amplifying the phosphorylation stage of ABA signaling to strengthen defense responses against water scarcity and reduce crop losses during droughts.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for research on drought and salt tolerance signaling through protein stabilization regulation in chili peppers.
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