Abstract
Glutathione is the most important part of a plant’s antioxidant defense system. Two enzymes are involved in cellular glutathione biosynthesis: glutamylcysteine ligase and glutathione synthetase, of which the latter catalyzes the transfer of glycine to the glutamylcysteine dipeptide. Transgenic plants with an elevated expression level of the glutathione synthetase genes are known to be tolerant to heavy metals. However, our knowledge on their tolerance to other types of the abiotic stress is insufficient. The goal of this study is to produce transgenic tobacco plants with a constitutive expression of the glutathione synthetase gene BnGSH from rapeseed and to estimate their growth parameters under the normal conditions, as well as under the effects of salt, drought, and cold stresses. We generate 17 lines of transgenic plants with the rapeseed BnGSH gene under the control of the 35S promoter by agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The transgene presence is confirmed by the PCR and histochemical analysis of the activity of the GUS reporter gene. Twelve lines with the highest expression level of the BnGSH gene are chosen based on the results of RT-PCR. The following morphological parameters are measured: stem height, leaf area, flower length, fresh and dry weights of shoots, and root length. Some transgenic plants demonstrated increased productivity both under normal conditions and under the effect of a high salinity stress. However, no change in the tolerance to drought and cold was observed in the transgenic plants.
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Original Russian Text © B.R. Kuluev, Z.A. Berezhneva, E.V. Mikhaylova, B.N. Postrigan, A.V. Knyazev, 2017, published in Ecologicheskaya Genetika, 2017, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 12–19.
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Kuluev, B.R., Berezhneva, Z.A., Mikhaylova, E.V. et al. Productivity and Stress-Tolerance of Transgenic Tobacco Plants with a Constitutive Expression of the Rapeseed Glutathione Synthetase Gene BnGSH. Russ J Genet Appl Res 8, 190–196 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079059718020077
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079059718020077