An Oryza orphan gene confers trans-species drought tolerance.

An Oryza-specific orphan gene, ROAD1, confers up to 34.75% higher grain yield under drought in rice and enhances drought tolerance across multiple plant species.

• Why it matters: Drought reduces crop productivity, and current tolerance strategies often impair yield; understanding unique genes like ROAD1 offers potential for improved resilience without trade-offs.
• What they did: Researchers identified ROAD1 from Oryza meridionalis, showed its allele ROAD1 C was selected during domestication, and demonstrated its ability to activate drought responses by binding phosphatase OsPP2C68 in rice and heterologously in other plants.
• The result: ROAD1 bypasses canonical ABA signaling, activates downstream drought responses, and its heterologous expression improves drought tolerance in Arabidopsis, rapeseed, maize, wheat, and poplar, suggesting trans-species applicability.