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Combinational transformation of three wheat genes encoding fructan biosynthesis enzymes confers increased fructan content and tolerance to abiotic stresses in tobacco

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Seven kinds of transgenic tobacco plants transformed with combinations of three FBE genes were obtained. The transgenic plants transformed with Ta1-SST + Ta6-SFT genes appeared to have the highest fructan or soluble sugar content and the strongest salt tolerance.

Abstract

Fructan is thought to be one of the important regulators involved in plant tolerance to various abiotic stresses. In this study, wheat-derived genes, Ta1-SST, Ta6-SFT, and Ta1-FFT, encoding fructan biosynthesis enzymes (FBE) were isolated and cloned into vectors modified pBI121 or pZP211. Seven different combinations of the three target genes were transformed into tobacco plants through an Agrobacterium-mediated approach, and transgenic tobacco plants were identified by PCR, ELISA, and Southern blotting. Compared with tobacco plants transformed with other six combinations of the three target genes and with wild-type plants, the transgenic plants transformed with Ta1-SST + Ta6-SFT genes contained the highest fructan and soluble sugar content. All seven types of transgenic tobacco plants displayed a much higher level of tolerance to drought, low temperature, and high salinity compared with the wild type. Differences of drought and low temperature tolerance between the transgenic plants containing a single FBE gene and those harboring two or three FBE genes were not significant, but the salt tolerance level of the transgenic plants with different FBE gene combinations from high to low was: Ta1-SST + Ta6-SFT > Ta1-SST + Ta6-SFT + Ta1-FFT > Ta1-SST + Ta1-FFT > Ta1-SFT + Ta1-FFT > single FBE gene. These results indicated that the tolerances of the transgenic tobacco plants to various abiotic stresses were associated with the transformed target gene combinations and the contents of fructan and soluble sugar contained in the transgenic plants.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express thanks to Dr. Tom Clemente at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, for the kind providing of the C58C1 Agrobacterium strain, the pRTL2 and the pZP211 vectors. We thank Ms. Sarah Caldwell-Hancock from Kansas State University for her critical revision of this manuscript. This work was financially supported by grants from the National High Scientific Technology Program of China “863” (2007AA10Z129) and the Ministry of Agriculture of China (2011ZX08010-004), respectively. This is contribution number 13-008-J from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Facility of Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement/Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaomin Bie, Ke Wang, Maoyun She, Lipu Du, Shuangxi Zhang, Xiang Gao, Zhishan Lin & Xingguo Ye

  2. Institute of Field Crop Sciences, Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Yinchuan, 750105, People’s Republic of China

    Shuangxi Zhang

  3. College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an, 271018, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaomin Bie

  4. Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Jiarui Li

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  1. Xiaomin Bie
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Correspondence to Xingguo Ye.

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Communicated by B. Li.

X. Bie and K. Wang contributed equally.

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Bie, X., Wang, K., She, M. et al. Combinational transformation of three wheat genes encoding fructan biosynthesis enzymes confers increased fructan content and tolerance to abiotic stresses in tobacco. Plant Cell Rep 31, 2229–2238 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-012-1332-y

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