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Expression of a calcineurin gene improves salt stress tolerance in transgenic rice

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Abstract

Calcineurin is a Ca2+- and calmodulin-dependent serine/threonine phosphatase and has multiple functions in animal cells including regulating ionic homeostasis. We generated transgenic rice plants that not only expressed a truncated form of the catalytic subunit of mouse calcineurin, but also were able to grow and fertilize normally in the field. Notably, the expression of the mouse calcineurin gene in rice resulted in its higher salt stress tolerance than the non-transgenic rice. Physiological studies have indicated that the root growth of transgenic plants was less inhibited than the shoot growth, and that less Na+ was accumulated in the roots of transgenic plants after a prolonged period of salt stress. These findings imply that the heterologous calcineurin plays a significant role in maintaining ionic homeostasis and the integrity of plant roots when exposed to salt. In addition, the calcineurin gene expression in the stems of transgenic plants correlated with the increased expression of the Rab16A gene that encodes a group 2-type late-embryogenesis-abundant (LEA) protein. Altogether our findings provide the first genetic and physiological evidence that expression of the mouse calcineurin protein functionally improves the salt stress tolerance of rice partly by limiting Na+ accumulation in the roots.

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  1. Xujun Ma

    Present address: College of Forest Resource and Environment, Northeast Forestry University, 150040, Harbin, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medicine, Peking Union Medical College, 100005, Beijing, China

    Xujun Ma & Dahai Zhu

  2. Laboratory of Biology, Harbin Medical University, 150086, Harbin, China

    Xujun Ma & Dahai Zhu

  3. Molecular and Cellular Developmental Biology Laboratory, Harbin Institute of Technology, 150001, Harbin, China

    Xujun Ma & Dahai Zhu

  4. Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, China National Rice Research Institute, 310006, Hangzhou, China

    Qian Qian

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Ma, X., Qian, Q. & Zhu, D. Expression of a calcineurin gene improves salt stress tolerance in transgenic rice. Plant Mol Biol 58, 483–495 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-005-6162-7

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