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Ectopically expressing MdPIP1;3, an aquaporin gene, increased fruit size and enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic tomatoes.

ABSTRACT: Water deficit severely reduces apple growth and production, is detrimental to fruit quality and size. This problem is exacerbated as global warming is implicated in producing more severe drought stress. Thus water-efficiency has becomes the major target for apple breeding. A desired apple tree can absorb and transport water efficiently, which not only confers improved drought tolerance, but also guarantees fruit size for higher income returns. Aquaporins, as water channels, control water transportation across membranes and can regulate water flow by changing their amount and activity. The exploration of molecular mechanism of water efficiency and the gene wealth will pave a way for molecular breeding of drought tolerant apple tree.In the current study, we screened out a drought inducible aquaporin gene MdPIP1;3, which specifically enhanced its expression during fruit expansion in 'Fuji' apple (Malus domestica Borkh. cv. Red Fuji). It localized on plasma membranes and belonged to PIP1 subfamily. The tolerance to drought stress enhanced in transgenic tomato plants ectopically expressing MdPIP1;3, showing that the rate of losing water in isolated transgenic leaves was slower than wild type, and stomata of transgenic plants closed sensitively to respond to drought compared with wild type. Besides, length and diameter of transgenic tomato fruits increased faster than wild type, and in final, fruit sizes and fresh weights of transgenic tomatoes were bigger than wild type. Specially, in cell levels, fruit cell size from transgenic tomatoes was larger than wild type, showing that cell number per mm2 in transgenic fruits was less than wild type.Altogether, ectopically expressing MdPIP1;3 enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic tomatoes partially via reduced water loss controlled by stomata closure in leaves. In addition, the transgenic tomato fruits are larger and heavier with larger cells via more efficient water transportation across membranes. Our research will contribute to apple production, by engineering apples with big fruits via efficient water transportation when well watered and enhanced drought tolerance in transgenic apples under water deficit.

SUBMITTER: Wang L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5735821 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ectopically expressing MdPIP1;3, an aquaporin gene, increased fruit size and enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic tomatoes.

Wang Lin L Li Qing-Tian QT Lei Qiong Q Feng Chao C Zheng Xiaodong X Zhou Fangfang F Li Lingzi L Liu Xuan X Wang Zhi Z Kong Jin J

BMC plant biology 20171219 1

<h4>Background</h4>Water deficit severely reduces apple growth and production, is detrimental to fruit quality and size. This problem is exacerbated as global warming is implicated in producing more severe drought stress. Thus water-efficiency has becomes the major target for apple breeding. A desired apple tree can absorb and transport water efficiently, which not only confers improved drought tolerance, but also guarantees fruit size for higher income returns. Aquaporins, as water channels, co ...[more]

PMID: 29258418

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Project description:Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most important vegetable crops; its production, productivity and quality are adversely affected by abiotic stresses. Abiotic stresses such as drought, extreme temperature and high salinity affect almost every stage of tomato life cycle. Depending upon the plant stage and duration of the stress, abiotic stress causes about 70% yield loss. Several wild tomato species have the stress tolerance genes; however, it is very difficult to transfer them into cultivars due to high genetic distance and crossing barriers. Transgenic technology is an alternative potential tool for the improvement of tomato crop to cope with abiotic stress, as it allows gene transfer across species. In recent decades, many transgenic tomatoes have been developed, and many more are under progress against abiotic stress using transgenes such as DREBs, Osmotin, ZAT12 and BADH2. The altered expression of these transgenes under abiotic stresses are involved in every step of stress responses, such as signaling, control of transcription, proteins and membrane protection, compatible solute (betaines, sugars, polyols, and amino acids) synthesis, and free-radical and toxic-compound scavenging. The stress-tolerant transgenic tomato development is based on introgression of a gene with known function in stress response and putative tolerance. Transgenic tomato plants have been developed against drought, heat and salt stress with the help of various transgenes, expression of which manages the stress at the cellular level by modulating the expression of downstream genes to ultimately improve growth and yield of tomato plants and help in sustainable agricultural production. The transgenic technology could be a faster way towards tomato improvement against abiotic stress. This review provides comprehensive information about transgenic tomato development against abiotic stress such as drought, heat and salinity for researcher attention and a better understanding of transgenic technology used in tomato improvement and sustainable agricultural production.

Project description:Soybean transgenic plants with ectopically expressed AtABF3 were produced by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and investigated the effects of AtABF3 expression on drought and salt tolerance. Stable Agrobacterium-mediated soybean transformation was carried based on the half-seed method (Paz et al. 2006). The integration of the transgene was confirmed from the genomic DNA of transformed soybean plants using PCR and the copy number of transgene was determined by Southern blotting using leaf samples from T2 seedlings. In addition to genomic integration, the expression of the transgenes was analyzed by RT-PCR and most of the transgenic lines expressed the transgenes introduced. The chosen two transgenic lines (line #2 and #9) for further experiment showed the substantial drought stress tolerance by surviving even at the end of the 20-day of drought treatment. And the positive relationship between the levels of AtABF3 gene expression and drought-tolerance was confirmed by qRT-PCR and drought tolerance test. The stronger drought tolerance of transgenic lines seemed to be resulted from physiological changes. Transgenic lines #2 and #9 showed ion leakage at a significantly lower level (P < 0.01) than non-transgenic (NT) control. In addition, the chlorophyll contents of the leaves of transgenic lines were significantly higher (P < 0.01). The results indicated that their enhanced drought tolerance was due to the prevention of cell membrane damage and maintenance of chlorophyll content. Water loss by transpiration also slowly proceeded in transgenic plants. In microscopic observation, higher stomata closure was confirmed in transgenic lines. Especially, line #9 had 56% of completely closed stomata whereas only 16% were completely open. In subsequent salt tolerance test, the apparently enhanced salt tolerance of transgenic lines was measured in ion leakage rate and chlorophyll contents. Finally, the agronomic characteristics of ectopically expressed AtABF3 transgenic plants (T2) compared to NT plants under regular watering (every 4 days) or low rate of watering condition (every 10 days) was investigated. When watered regularly, the plant height of drought-tolerant line (#9) was shorter than NT plants. However, under the drought condition, total seed weight of line #9 was significantly higher than in NT plants (P < 0.01). Moreover, the pods of NT plants showed severe withering, and most of the pods failed to set normal seeds. All the evidences in the study clearly suggested that overexpression of the AtABF3 gene conferred drought and salt tolerance in major crop soybean, especially under the growth condition of low watering.

Dataset Information

Ectopically expressing MdPIP1;3, an aquaporin gene, increased fruit size and enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic tomatoes.

Publications

Ectopically expressing MdPIP1;3, an aquaporin gene, increased fruit size and enhanced drought tolerance of transgenic tomatoes.

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