Overexpression of TaLEA Gene from Tamarix androssowii Improves Salt and Drought Tolerance in Transgenic Poplar (Populus simonii × P. nigra)

Abstract

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) genes were confirmed to confer resistance to drought and water deficiency. An LEA gene from Tamarix androssowii (named TaLEA) was transformed into Xiaohei poplar ( Populus simonii × P. nigra) via Agrobacterium . Twenty-five independent transgenic lines were obtained that were resistant to kanamycin, and 11 transgenic lines were randomly selected for further analysis. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) gel blot indicated that the TaLEA gene had been integrated into the poplar genome. The height growth rate, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, relative electrolyte leakage and damages due to salt or drought to transgenic and non-transgenic plants were compared under salt and drought stress conditions. The results showed that the constitutive expression of the TaLEA gene in transgenic poplars could induce an increase in height growth rate and a decrease in number and severity of wilted leaves under the salt and drought stresses. The MDA content and relative electrolyte leakage in transgenic lines under salt and drought stresses were significantly lower compared to those in non-transgenic plants, indicating that the TaLEA gene may enhance salt and drought tolerance by protecting cell membranes from damage. Moreover, amongst the lines analyzed for stress tolerance, the transgenic line 11 (T11) showed the highest tolerance levels under both salinity and drought stress conditions. These results indicated that the TaLEA gene could be a salt and drought tolerance candidate gene and could confer a broad spectrum of tolerance under abiotic stresses in poplars.

A myo‐inositol‐1‐phosphate synthase gene, IbMIPS1, enhances salt and drought tolerance and stem nematode resistance in transgenic sweet potato

“…It has been reported that ABA regulates the expression of abiotic stress-responsive genes (P5CS, P5CR, TPS, TPP, NHX and LEA) and biotic stress-responsive genes (CAS, POD, HRGP, LTP, LRP1, CPI, PI and AMP) in several plant species (Abraham et al, 2003;Asselbergh et al, 2008;Dalal et al, 2009;Gao et al, 2009Gao et al, , 2013Hildmann et al, 1992;Iturriaga et al, 2009;Jung et al, 2004;Lee and Hwang, 2009;Muñoz-Mayor et al, 2012;Pramanik and Imai, 2005;Schluepmann and Paulb, 2009;Song et al, 2011;Sripinyowanich et al, 2013;Sun et al, 2014;Tseng et al, 2013;Yokoi et al, 2002;Zhu, 2002). The application of ABA has been shown to enhance the resistance to Pythium irregulare in Arabidopsis (Adie et al, 2007), necrosis virus in tobacco (Iriti and Faoro, 2008) and Alternaria solani in tomato (Song et al, 2011).…”

Global plant-responding mechanisms to salt stress: physiological and molecular levels and implications in biotechnology

“…Only in this way, can the mechanisms and principles be discovered and the corresponding solutions are proposed. In addition, there are other factors such as LEA proteins, WRKY and MYB transcriptional factors affecting salt tolerance of plants which should also arouse our attentions (Cheng et al, 2013;Gao et al, 2013;Scarpeci et al, 2013). The microorganisms in the soil is found to be involved in phytohormonal signaling to improve plant nutrition, photosynthesis and biomass production ameliorating crop salt tolerance (Dodd & Pérez-Alfocea, 2012).…”

Salt-tolerant genes from halophytes are potential key players of salt tolerance in glycophytes

“…Glycine-rich SbASR1 contains 63 percent disorder-promoting amino acid residues, and transgenic plants displayed improved adaptation to high-salt stress (De Jonge et al, 2000;Jha et al, 2012). The expression of TsLEA1 from Thellungiella salsuginea and TaLEA from Tamarix androssowii in yeast mutants improved salt tolerance (( Table 2) Zhang et al, 2012;Gao et al, 2013)). Similarly, another nuclear localized Suaeda liaotungensis ASR gene exhibited salt tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis (Hu et al, 2014).…”