RESUMEN
Adaptation of crops to drought-prone rain-fed conditions can be achieved by improving plant traits such as efficient water mining (by superior root characters) and cellular-level tolerance mechanisms. Pyramiding these drought-adaptive traits by simultaneous expression of genes regulating drought-adaptive mechanisms has phenomenal relevance in improving stress tolerance. In this study, we provide evidence that peanut transgenic plants expressing Alfalfa zinc finger 1 (Alfin1), a root growth-associated transcription factor gene, Pennisetum glaucum heat-shock factor (PgHSF4) and Pea DNA helicase (PDH45) involved in protein turnover and protection showed improved tolerance, higher growth and productivity under drought stress conditions. Stable integration of all the transgenes was noticed in transgenic lines. The transgenic lines showed higher root growth, cooler crop canopy air temperature difference (less CCATD) and higher relative water content (RWC) under drought stress. Low proline levels in transgenic lines substantiate the maintenance of higher water status. The survival and recovery of transgenic lines was significantly higher under gradual moisture stress conditions with higher biomass. Transgenic lines also showed significant tolerance to ethrel-induced senescence and methyl viologen-induced oxidative stress. Several stress-responsive genes such as heat-shock proteins (HSPs), RING box protein-1 (RBX1), Aldose reductase, late embryogenesis abundant-5 (LEA5) and proline-rich protein-2 (PRP2), a gene involved in root growth, showed enhanced expression under stress in transgenic lines. Thus, the simultaneous expression of regulatory genes contributing for drought-adaptive traits can improve crop adaptation and productivity under water-limited conditions.
Asunto(s)
Aclimatación/genética , Arachis/genética , Arachis/fisiología , Sequías , Genes de Plantas , Genes Reguladores , Aclimatación/efectos de los fármacos , Arachis/efectos de los fármacos , Arachis/crecimiento & desarrollo , Producción de Cultivos/métodos , Regulación de la Expresión Génica de las Plantas/efectos de los fármacos , Humedad , Kanamicina/farmacología , Compuestos Organofosforados/farmacología , Estrés Oxidativo/efectos de los fármacos , Paraquat/farmacología , Proteínas de Plantas/genética , Proteínas de Plantas/metabolismo , Raíces de Plantas/efectos de los fármacos , Raíces de Plantas/crecimiento & desarrollo , Plantas Modificadas Genéticamente , Estrés Fisiológico/efectos de los fármacos , Estrés Fisiológico/genética , Temperatura , Transformación Genética/efectos de los fármacosRESUMEN
Abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and heat stress significantly affect rice crop growth and production. Under uncertain climatic conditions, the concurrent multiple abiotic stresses at different stages of rice production became a major challenge for agriculture. Hence, improving rice's multiple abiotic stress tolerance is essential to overcome unprecedented challenges under adverse environmental conditions. A significant challenge for rice breeding programs in improving abiotic stress tolerance involves multiple traits and their complexity. Multiple traits must be targeted to improve multiple stress tolerance in rice and uncover the mechanisms. With this hypothesis, in the present study gene stacking approach is used to integrate multiple traits involved in stress tolerance. The multigene transgenics co-expressing Pennisetum glaucum 47 (Pg47), Pea 68 (p68), Pennisetum glaucum Heat Shock Factor 4(PgHSF4), and Pseudomonas Aldo Keto Reductase 1 (PsAKR1) genes in the rice genotype (AC39020) were developed using the in-planta transformation method. The promising transgenic lines maintained higher yields under semi-irrigated aerobic cultivation (moisture stress). These 15 promising transgenic rice seedlings showed improved shoot and root growth traits under salinity, accelerating aging, temperature, and oxidative stress. They showed better physiological characteristics, such as chlorophyll content, membrane stability, and lower accumulation of reactive oxygen species, under multiple abiotic stresses than wild-type. Enhanced expression of transgenes and other stress-responsive downstream genes such as HSP70, SOD, APX, SOS, PP2C, and P5CS in transgenic lines suggest the possible molecular mechanism for imparting the abiotic stress tolerance. This study proved that multiple genes stacking as a novel strategy induce several mechanisms and responsible traits to overcome multiple abiotic stresses. This multigene combination can potentially improve tolerance to multiple abiotic stress conditions and pave the way for developing climate-resilient crops.