Abstract
Key message
Double transgenic tomato developed by AtDREB1A and BcZAT12 genes pyramiding showed significant drought tolerance by reducing oxidative stress with enhanced yield.
Abstract
Although a large number of efforts have been made by different researchers to develop abiotic stress tolerance tomato for improving yield using single gene, however, no reports are available which targets AtDREB1 and BcZAT12 genes together. Hence, in the present study, double transgenic plants were developed using AtDREB1 and BcZAT12 genes to improve yield potential with better drought tolerance. Double transgenic (DZ1–DZ5) tomato lines showed enhanced drought tolerance than their counterpart non-transgenic and single transgenic plants at 0, 07, 14, and 21 days of water deficit, respectively. Double transgenic plants showed increased activity of antioxidant enzymes, like catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) and guaiacol peroxidase (POD), and accumulation of non-enzymatic antioxidants like ascorbic acid, glutathione as compared to non-transgenic and single transgenic. Additionally, the transcript analysis of antioxidant enzymes revealed the increased level of gene expression in double transgenic tomato lines. Developed double-transgenic tomato plants co-over-expressing both genes exhibited more enzymatic and non-enzymatic anti-oxidative activities as compared to the non-transgenic and single transgenic control, respectively. This is the preliminary report in tomato, which forms the basis for a multigene transgenic approach to cope with drought stress.
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Data availability
All the data are presented in the manuscript and the materials used in this research work are with ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi, India.
Code availability
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Acknowledgements
The present study is the part of National Project on Transgenic Crops (NPTC), funded by Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), New Delhi. The authors gratefully acknowledge to The Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi, India for providing infrastructure facilities to conduct the present study and Jay Kumar Patel for assistance in glass house experiments.
Funding
The present research work was funded by Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), New Delhi under the scheme National Project on Transgenic Crops (NPTC).
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RK performed all the experiment and initial manuscript draft writing. WAA analyzed the data and helped in manuscript preparation. DKJ helped in data recording. MS developed the project idea and fund. AKS, RP, MS and JPV edited the manuscript.
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Communicated by Aryadeep Roychoudhury.
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Krishna, R., Ansari, W.A., Jaiswal, D.K. et al. Overexpression of AtDREB1 and BcZAT12 genes confers drought tolerance by reducing oxidative stress in double transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Plant Cell Rep 40, 2173–2190 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02725-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-021-02725-1