Abstract
Plant Na+/H+ antiporter plays a critical role in plant salt tolerance. In this study, AtNHX1, a vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter from Arabidopsis thalina, was introduced into Petunia hybrida using Agrobacterium-mediated methods. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and DNA gel blot analysis confirmed that AtNHX1 was successfully integrated into the P. hybrida genomes. Reverse transcription (RT)-PCR analysis indicated that AtNHX1 expressed highly in transgenic plants. It was found that the 35S::AtNHX1 transgenic P. hybrida plants showed much more resistant to high concentrations of NaCl and to water deprivation than the isogenic wild-type (WT) Petunia plants. The transgenic plants accumulated more Na+, K+, and proline in their leaf tissue than that of the WT Petunia plants and maintained high water contents and high ratio of K+/Na+. These results demonstrated that overexpression of the vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter conferred both salt tolerance and drought tolerance to the transgenic Petunia plants.
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Abbreviations
- AtNHX1 :
-
A vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter of Arabidopsis
- CaMV:
-
Cauliflower mosaicvirus
- HYG:
-
Hygrimycin phosphotransferase
- MDA:
-
Malonyldialdehyde
- MS:
-
Murashige and Skoog
- RT:
-
Reverse transcription
- RWC:
-
Relative water content
- WT:
-
Wild type
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Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. Blumwald E (Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis) for revising the manuscript. This work was financially supported by Basic Research Project of Shanghai and National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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K. Xu and P. Hong contributed equally to the paper.
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Xu, K., Hong, P., Luo, L. et al. Overexpression of AtNHX1, a Vacuolar Na+/H+ Antiporter from Arabidopsis thalina, in Petunia hybrida Enhances Salt and Drought Tolerance. J. Plant Biol. 52, 453–461 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-009-9058-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-009-9058-2