Co-expression of the Arabidopsis SOS genes enhances salt tolerance in transgenic tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.).

ABSTRACT: Crop productivity is greatly affected by soil salinity; therefore, improvement in salinity tolerance of crops is a major goal in salt-tolerant breeding. The Salt Overly Sensitive (SOS) signal-transduction pathway plays a key role in ion homeostasis and salt tolerance in plants. Here, we report that overexpression of Arabidopsis thaliana SOS1+SOS2+SOS3 genes enhanced salt tolerance in tall fescue. The transgenic plants displayed superior growth and accumulated less Na+ and more K+ in roots after 350 mM NaCl treatment. Moreover, Na+ enflux, K+ influx, and Ca2+ influx were higher in the transgenic plants than in the wild-type plants. The activities of the enzyme superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and proline content in the transgenic plants were significantly increased; however, the

SUBMITTER: Ma DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3893463 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature