{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,21]],"date-time":"2026-07-21T10:46:12Z","timestamp":1784630772208,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769731200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Antioxidants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Drought severely limits plant productivity, and understanding its regulatory mechanisms remains essential. Here, we characterize Lipid Transport Superfamily-Polyketide cyclase\/dehydrase (LTS-PYL), a PYR\/PYL\/RCAR-domain gene, using Arabidopsis overexpression and CRISPR-Cas9 genome-edited lines to elucidate its role in drought adaptation. LTS-PYL overexpression enhanced early seedling growth, increasing root length (RL) by 40% and 31%, whereas genome-edited lines exhibited severe defects, including 42%, 28% reductions in fresh weight and 63%, 50% decreases in root length relative to WT-T. Under drought stress, overexpression lines displayed strong growth and reproductive resilience, with shoot length (SL) increased by up to 80%, silique length (Sil L) by 61%, and seed number doubled compared with WT-T. In contrast, genome-edited lines showed marked reductions in these traits, confirming their drought sensitivity. LTS-PYL overexpression strongly suppressed oxidative stress, reducing H2O2 by 74% and 68% and O2\u2212\u00b7 by 39% and 38%, while increasing relative water content (RWC) by 42% and 39%. Genome-edited lines exhibited elevated (H2O2, O2\u2212\u00b7) and up to 33% lower RWC. Antioxidant capacity was also strengthened in overexpression plants, with catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) activities increasing by 138%, 168% and 62%, 148%, and malondialdehyde (MDA) and electrolyte leakage (EL) reduced by 23%, 37%, relative to WT-T. Conversely, genome-edited lines showed weakened antioxidant defenses and higher membrane damage. Transcriptionally, overexpression activated drought-responsive genes, elevating LTS-PYL (604%, 472%), DREB2A (227%, 200%), and ABA levels (48%, 34%), whereas genome-edited lines showed strongly reduced expression and ABA decreases of 66%, 62%. Additionally, LTS-PYL enhanced osmotic adjustment, increasing proline (58%, 53%), sugars (37%, 46%), and sucrose (111%, 100%), while limiting chlorophyll (Chl) loss to 9%, 20%. Genome-edited lines exhibited reduced osmolytes and severe chlorophyll decline. Overall, LTS-PYL acts as a strong positive regulator of drought tolerance, integrating ABA signaling, osmotic adjustment, ROS detoxification, and transcriptional activation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/antiox15020178","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T11:09:22Z","timestamp":1769771362000},"page":"178","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Functional\u00a0Analysis of LTS-PYL in Modulating Plant Drought Responses"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5788-3017","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rahmatullah","family":"Jan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Coastal Agriculture Research Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8216-7549","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sajjad","family":"Asaf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Natural and Medical Science Research Center, University of Nizwa, Nizwa 616, Oman"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Saleem","family":"Asif","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zakirullah","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"family":"Lubna","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Natural and Medical Science Research Center, University of Nizwa, Nizwa 616, Oman"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2284-3466","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eman R.","family":"Elsharkawy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Health Research, Northern Border University, Arar 73213, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Syed Abdullah","family":"Gilani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences and Chemistry (DBSC), College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), University of Nizwa, Nizwa 616, Oman"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4812-6297","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kyung-Min","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Coastal Agriculture Research Institute, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea"},{"name":"Department of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e14258","DOI":"10.1111\/ppl.14258","article-title":"Halotolerant Pseudomonas koreensis S4T10 mitigate salt and drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana","volume":"176","author":"Kalleku","year":"2024","journal-title":"Physiol. 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