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Improving tobacco freezing tolerance by co-transfer of stress-inducible CbCBF and CbICE53 genes

  • Original paper
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Biologia Plantarum

Abstract

Cold stress is one of the major limitations to crop productivity worldwide. We investigated the effects of multiple gene expression from cold tolerant Capsella bursa-pastoris in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabaccum) plants. We combined CblCE53 and CbCBF into a reconstruct vector by isocaudomers. Plant overexpression of CbICE53 under the stress inducible CbCOR15b promoter and CbCBF under a constitutive promoter showed increased tolerance to both chilling and freezing temperatures in comparison to wild-type plants, according to the electrolyte leakage and relative water content. The expressions of endogenous cold-responsive genes in transgenic tobacco (NtDREB1, NtDREB3, NtERD10a and NtERD10b) were obviously upregulated under normal and low temperature conditions. These results suggest that the CbICE53 + CbCBF transgenic plants showed a much greater cold tolerance as well as no dwarfism and delayed flowering. Thus they can be considered as a potential candidate for transgenic engineering for cold tolerant tobacco.

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Abbreviations

CBF:

C-repeat binding factor

CDKA:

cyclin-dependent kinase A

COR:

cold-responsive

CRT/DRE:

C-repeat/dehydration responsive element

CYCB:

cyclin B

CYCD:

cyclin D

DREB:

dehydration responsive element binding protein

EV:

empty vector control

GFP:

green fluorescent protein

GUS:

β-glucuronidase

ICE:

inducer of CBF expression

LT:

low temperature

LTRD:

low temperature responsive elements

RT-qPCR:

reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction

WT:

wild type

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Fuyang, Zhejiang, 311400, P.R. China

    P. Lin & X. H. Yao

  2. Institute of Plant Biology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, P.R. China

    C. Shen, H. Chen & J. Lin

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  1. P. Lin
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  2. C. Shen
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  3. H. Chen
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  4. X. H. Yao
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  5. J. Lin
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Correspondence to X. H. Yao or J. Lin.

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Acknowledgements: We are grateful for the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (31370346), the National Key Technology R&D Program (2009BADA8B04), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2008AA10Z105). The first two authors contributed equally to this work.

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Lin, P., Shen, C., Chen, H. et al. Improving tobacco freezing tolerance by co-transfer of stress-inducible CbCBF and CbICE53 genes. Biol Plant 61, 520–528 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-016-0687-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10535-016-0687-2

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