Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Overexpression of osmotin gene confers tolerance to salt and drought stresses in transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Protoplasma Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Abiotic stresses, especially salinity and drought, are major limiting factors for plant growth and crop productivity. In an attempt to develop salt and drought tolerant tomato, a DNA cassette containing tobacco osmotin gene driven by a cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter was transferred to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Putative T0 transgenic plants were screened by PCR analysis. The selected transformants were evaluated for salt and drought stress tolerance by physiological analysis at T1 and T2 generations. Integration of the osmotin gene in transgenic T1 plants was verified by Southern blot hybridization. Transgenic expression of the osmotin gene was verified by RT-PCR and northern blotting in T1 plants. T1 progenies from both transformed and untransformed plants were tested for salt and drought tolerance by subjecting them to different levels of NaCl stress and by withholding water supply, respectively. Results from different physiological tests demonstrated enhanced tolerance to salt and drought stresses in transgenic plants harboring the osmotin gene as compared to the wild-type plants. The transgenic lines showed significantly higher relative water content, chlorophyll content, proline content, and leaf expansion than the wild-type plants under stress conditions. The present investigation clearly shows that overexpression of osmotin gene enhances salt and drought stress tolerance in transgenic tomato plants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Apse MP, Blumwald E (2002) Engineering salt tolerance in plants. Curr Opin Biotechnol 13:146–150

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Arrillaga I, Gil Mascarell R, Gisbert C, Sales E, Montesinos C, Serrano R, Moreno V (1998) Expression of the yeast HAL2 gene in tomato increases the in vitro salt tolerance of transgenic progenies. Plant Sci 136:219–226

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bansal KC, Nagarajan S (1987) Reduction of leaf growth by water stress and its recovery in relation to transcription and stomatal conductance in some potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) genotypes. Potato Res 30:497–506

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartels D, Sunkar R (2005) Drought and salt tolerance in plants. Crit Rev Plant Sci 24:23–58

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barthakur S, Babu V, Bansal KC (2001) Over-expression of osmotin induces proline accumulation and confers tolerance to osmotic stress in transgenic tobacco. J Plant Biochem Biotech 10:31–37

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bates LS, Waldren RP, Teare JD (1973) Rapid determination of free proline for water stress studies. Plant Soil 39:205–207

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Borsani O, Valpuesta V, Botella MA (2003) Developing salt tolerant plants in a new century: a molecular biology approach. Plant Cell Tissue Organ Cult 73:101–115

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Campos MdeA, Silva MS, Magalhães CP, Ribeiro SG, Sarto RP, Vieira EA, Grossi de Sá MF (2008) Expression in Escherichia coli, purification, refolding and antifungal activity of an osmotin from Solanum nigrum. Microbe Cell Fact 7:7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capelli N, Diogon T, Greppin H, Simon P (1996) Isolation and characterization of cDNA clone encoding an osmotin-like protein from Arabidopsis thaliana. Gene 191:51–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen X, Guo Z (2008) Tobacco OPBP1 enhances salt tolerance and disease resistance of transgenic Rice. Int J Mol Sci 9:2601–2613

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chinnusamy V, Jagendorf A, Zhu J-K (2005) Understanding and improving salt tolerance in plants. Crop Sci 45:437–448

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • D’Angeli S, Altamura MM (2007) Osmotin induces cold protection in olive trees by affecting programmed cell death and cytoskeleton organization. Planta 225:1147–1163

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dhindsa RS, Dhindsa PP, Thorpe TA (1981) Leaf senescence correlated with increased level of membrane permeability and lipid peroxidation, and decreased levels of superoxide dismutase and catalase. J Exp Bot 32:93–101

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Evers D, Overney S, Simon P, Greppin H, Hausman JF (1999) Salt tolerance of Solanum tuberosum L. overexpressing an heterologous osmotin-like protein. Biol Plant 42:105–112

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Foolad MR (2004) Current status of breeding tomatoes for salt and drought tolerance. In: Jenks MA et al (eds) Advances in molecular breeding toward drought and salt tolerant crops. Springer, New York, pp 669–700

    Google Scholar 

  • Gisbert C, Rus AM, Bolarin MC, Lopez-Coronado JM, Arrillaga I, Montesinos C, Caro M, Serrano R, Moreno V (2000) The yeast HAL1 gene improves salt tolerance of transgenic tomato. Plant Physiol 123:393–402

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jami SK, Swathi Anuradha T, Guruprasad L, Kirti PB (2007) Molecular, biochemical and structural characterization of osmotin-like protein from black nightshade (Solanum nigrum). J Plant Physiol 164:238–252

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kavi Kishor PB, Hong Z, Miao GH, Hu AA, Verma DPS (1995) Over expression of Δ1 pyroline 5-carboxylate synthetase increases proline production and confers osmotolerance in transgenic plants. Plant Physiol 108:1387–1394

    Google Scholar 

  • Kononoweiz AK, Nelson DE, Singh NK, Hasegawa PM, Bressan RA (1992) Regulation of the osmotin gene promoter. Plant Cell 4:513–524

    Google Scholar 

  • Kupchak BR, Villa NY, Kulemina LV, Lyons TJ (2008) Dissecting the regulation of yeast genes by the osmotin receptor. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 374:210–213

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LaRosa PC, Chen Z, Nelson DE, Singh NK, Hasegawa PM, Bressan RA (1992) Osmotin gene is post transcriptionally regulated. Plant Physiol 100:409–415

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee B, Damsz B, Woloshuk CP, Bressan RA, Narasimhan ML (2010) Identification of Fusarium oxysporum genes that control cell wall properties using the plant defense protein, osmotin. Eukaryot Cell. doi:10.1128/EC.00316-09

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahajan S, Tuteja N (2005) Cold, salinity and drought stresses: an overview. Arch Biochem Biophys 444:139–158

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moghaieb REA, Tanaka N, Saneoka H, Hussein HA, Yousef SS, Ewada MAF, Aly MAM, Fujita K (2000) Expression of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase gene in transgenic tomato hairy roots leads to the accumulation of glycine betaine and contributes to the maintenance of the osmotic potential under salt stress. Soil Sci Plant Nutr 46:873–883

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Munns R (2002) Comparative physiology of salt and water stress. Plant Cell Environ 25:239–250

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murashige T, Skoog F (1962) A revised medium for rapid growth and bioassay with tobacco tissue cultures. Physiol Plant 15:473–497

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Murray MG, Thompson WF (1980) Rapid isolation of high molecular weight plant DNA. Nucleic Acids Res 8:4321–4325

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pareek SL, Reddy MK, Sopory SK (2001) transgenic approach towards developing abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Proc Indian Natl Sci Acad 5:265–284

    Google Scholar 

  • Rontein D, Basset G, Hanson AD (2002) Metabolic engineering of osmoprotectant accumulation in plants. Metab Eng 4:49–56

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rus AM, Estan MT, Gisbert C, Garcia-Sogo B, Serrano R, Caro M, Moreno V, Bolarín MC (2001) Expressing the yeast HAL1 gene in tomato increases fruit yield and enhances K+/Na+ selectivity under salt stress. Plant Cell Environ 24:875–880

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Seki M, Kamei A, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Shinozaki K (2003) Molecular responses to drought, salinity and frost: common and different paths for plant protection. Curr Opin Biotechnol 14:194–199

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shinozaki K, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Seki M (2003) Regulatory network of gene expression in the drought and cold stress responses. Curr Opin Plant Biol 6:410–417

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singh NK, Bracker CA, Hasegawa PM, Handa AK, Buckel S, Hermodson MA, Pfankoch E, Regnier FE, Bressan RA (1987) Characterization of osmotin: a thaumatin-like protein associated with osmotic adaptation in plant cells. Plant Physiol 85:529–536

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singh NK, Nelson DE, LaRosa PC, Bracker CA, Handa AK (1989a) Osmotin: a protein associated with osmotic stress adaptation in plant cells. In: Cherry JH (ed) Environmental stress in plants, NATO, ASI series, vol G19. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 67–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh NK, Nelson DE, Kuhn D, Hasegawa PM, Bressan RA (1989b) Molecular cloning of osmotin and regulation of its expression by ABA and adaptation to low water potential. Plant Physiol 90:1096–1101

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tuteja N (2007) Mechanisms of high salinity tolerance in plants. Methods Enzymol 428:419–438

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vinocur B, Altman A (2005) Recent advances in engineering plant tolerance to abiotic stress: achievements and limitations. Curr Opin Biotechnol 16:123–132

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wang W, Vinocur B, Altman A (2003) Plant responses to drought, salinity and extreme temperatures: towards genetic engineering for stress tolerance. Planta 218:1–14

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yun DJ, Ibeas JI, Lee H, Coca MA, Narasimhan ML, Uesono Y, Hasegawa PM, Pardo JM, Bressan RA (1998) Osmotin, a plant antifungal protein, subverts signal transduction to enhance fungal cell susceptibility. Mol Cell 1:807–817

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang HX, Blumwald E (2001) Transgenic salt-tolerant tomato plants accumulate salt in foliage but not in fruit. Nat Biotechnol 19:765–768

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Shih DS (2007) Isolation of an osmotin-like protein gene from strawberry and analysis of the response of this gene to abiotic stresses. J Plant Physiol 164:68–77

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funds provided by DRDO, India. We thank Dr. K.V Prabhu, Officer-in-Charge, National Phytotron Facility, IARI for providing Phytotron facility.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Author notes

  1. A. K. Singh

    Present address: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky, 201F Plant Science Building, 1405 Veterans Drive, Lexington, KY, 40546-0312, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Center on Plant Biotechnology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110 012, India

    D. Goel, A. K. Singh, V. Yadav & K. C. Bansal

  2. Department of Botany, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    D. Goel & S. B. Babbar

Authors
  1. D. Goel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. K. Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. V. Yadav
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S. B. Babbar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. K. C. Bansal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. C. Bansal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Goel, D., Singh, A.K., Yadav, V. et al. Overexpression of osmotin gene confers tolerance to salt and drought stresses in transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Protoplasma 245, 133–141 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-010-0158-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-010-0158-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation