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Apple Columnar Gene MdDMR6 Increases the Salt Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Tobacco Seedling and Apple Calli

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Abstract

Recent studies have shown that the MdDMR6 is a key gene for the control of columnar growing habit. However, there has been no research report on the function of the MdDMR6 gene. In the present study, the columnar apple shoot cultures exhibited better tolerance than that of the standard apple shoot cultures under the salt stress. The expression of MdDMR6 was remarkably induced by the salt stress. Subsequently, the MdDMR6 was transferred into tobacco and apple calli via the Agrobacterium-mediated approach. Functional analysis showed that the overexpressing transgenic tobacco and apple calli displayed salt tolerance and ABA-insensitive phenotype through physiological and biochemical analysis. The MdDMR6 overexpression activated the transcript levels of several genes involved in the ABA-dependent stress genes under the salt condition. These results suggest that the MdDMR6 would increase the plant tolerance to the salt stress via activating or interacting other protein to indirectly activate ABA-dependent pathways.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all the laboratory members for continuous technical advices and helpful discussions. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 31372032), China Agriculture Research System Foundation (Grant no. CARS-27), PhD Foundation of Qingdao Agricultural University (Grant No. 1118031). The first two authors contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Xin Sun and Cuiping Wen have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Horticultural, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, China

    Xin Sun, Cuiping Wen, Jun Zhu, Hongyi Dai & Yugang Zhang

  2. Qingdao Key Laboratory of Genetic Development and Breeding in Horticultural Plants, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, China

    Xin Sun, Cuiping Wen, Jun Zhu, Hongyi Dai & Yugang Zhang

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  1. Xin Sun
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  2. Cuiping Wen
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  3. Jun Zhu
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  5. Yugang Zhang
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Correspondence to Yugang Zhang.

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Supplementary file 1 (DOCX 79 kb)

344_2020_10082_MOESM2_ESM.jpg

Supplementary file 2 Fig. S1 qRT-PCR analysis of MdDMr6 gene in transgenic apple calli lines (A) and tobacco lines (B) (JPEG 871 kb)

344_2020_10082_MOESM3_ESM.tiff

Supplementary file 3 Fig. S2 Expression analysis of ABA biosynthesis in apple shoot cultures, transgenic apple calli lines (L11, L12, L13) and tobacco lines (L4, L5, L15) (TIFF 506 kb)

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Sun, X., Wen, C., Zhu, J. et al. Apple Columnar Gene MdDMR6 Increases the Salt Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Tobacco Seedling and Apple Calli. J Plant Growth Regul 40, 187–196 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-020-10082-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-020-10082-8

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