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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Improved drought and salt stress tolerance in transgenic tobacco overexpressing a novel A20/AN1 zinc-finger "alSAP" gene isolated from the halophyte grass Aeluropus littoralis
Plant Molecular Biology, Volume 72, No. 1-2, Year 2010
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Description
We describe here the isolation of a novel gene, designated AlSAP, from A. littoralis in a first step to exploit the potential of this halophyte grass as a genetic resource to improve salt and drought tolerance in plants and, particularly, in cereals. The Aeluropus genome contains a single AlSAP gene which has an intron at its 5'UTR. Sequence homology analysis showed that the AlSAP protein is characterized by the presence of two conserved zinc-finger domains A20 and AN1. AlSAP is induced not only by various abiotic stresses such as salt, osmotic, heat and cold but, also by abscisic acid (ABA) and salicylic acid (SA). Tobacco plants expressing the AlSAP gene under the control of the duplicated CaMV35S promoter exhibited an enhanced tolerance to abiotic stresses such as salinity (350 mM NaCl), drought (soil Relative Water Content (RWC) = 25%), heat (55°C for 2.5 h) and freezing (-20°C for 3 h). Moreover, under high salt and drought conditions, the transgenic plants were able to complete their life cycle and to produce viable seeds while the wild-type plants died at the vegetative stage. Measurements of the leaf RWC and of the root and leaf endogenous Na+ and K+ levels in AlSAP transgenic lines compared to wild-type tobacco, showed an evident lower water loss rate and a higher Na+ accumulation in senescent-basal leaves, respectively. Finally, we found that the steady state levels of transcripts of eight stress-related genes were higher in AlSAP transgenic lines than in wild-type tobacco. Taken together, these results show that AlSAP is a potentially useful candidate gene for engineering drought and salt tolerance in cultivated plants. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Authors & Co-Authors
Ben Saad, Rania
Tunisia, Sfax
Centre de Biotechnologie de Sfax
Zouari, Nabil
Tunisia, Sfax
Centre de Biotechnologie de Sfax
Ben-Romdhane, Walid
Tunisia, Sfax
Centre de Biotechnologie de Sfax
Azaza, Jalel
Tunisia, Sfax
Centre de Biotechnologie de Sfax
Meynard, Donaldo
France, Paris
Cirad
Guiderdoni, Emmanuel
France, Paris
Cirad
Hassaïri, Afif
Tunisia, Sfax
Centre de Biotechnologie de Sfax
Statistics
Citations: 122
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1007/s11103-009-9560-4
ISSN:
01674412
Research Areas
Environmental
Genetics And Genomics
Substance Abuse