Tobacco drought stress responses reveal new targets for Solanaceae crop improvement.

The Solanaceae are an economically important family of plants that include tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), tomato, and potato. Drought is a major cause of crop losses. We propose components of a core metabolic response to drought stress in plants and also show that some major responses to drought stress at the metabolome and transcriptome levels are family specific. We therefore propose that the observed family-specific changes in metabolism are regulated, at least in part, by family-specific changes in transcription factor activity. We also present a list of potential targets for the improvement of Solanaceae drought responses