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Christolea crassifolia HARDY gene enhances drought stress tolerance in transgenic tomato plants

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Abstract

Christolea crassifolia HARDY: gene (CcHRD) belongs to the AP2/ERF-like tanscritpion factor family, and overexpression of HRD gene has been proved to result in improved water use efficiency and enhanced drought resistance in multiple plant species. In the present study, we cloned the CcHRD gene from Christolea crassifolia, which shares 99.1% sequence similarity with the HRD gene from Arabidopsis thaliana. We generated transgenic tomato plants expressing CcHRD gene by agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation. Our results revealed that the transgenic tomato plants showed a more developed root system and higher fruit yield than the wild-type plants. Furthermore, the leaf relative water content, chlorophyll content and Fv/Fm value in transgenic plants were significantly higher than the wild type, while the relative conductivity and MDA content of transgenic plant leaves were markedly lower than those of wild type under drought stress. We also observed that the major agronomic traits of transgenic tomato plants were improved under natural drought stress compared with those of the wild type. In summary, results in this transgenic study showed that the CcHRD gene could enhance the drought resistance in tomato, and also provided important information for the application of drought-responsive genes in improving crop plant resistance to abiotic stresses.

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Acknowledgements

This paper resulted from the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China support program (No.31160049), (No. 31301058) and the specialized research fund for the doctoral program of higher education (20130072120025), Tongji University Young Talents Program (No. 1500219048).

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    1. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832003, China

      Xinyong Guo, Li Zhang, Jianbo Zhu, Aiying Wang & Hongling Liu

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    1. Xinyong Guo
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    2. Li Zhang
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    Correspondence to Jianbo Zhu.

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    Xinyong Guo and Li Zhang have contributed equally to this work.

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    Guo, X., Zhang, L., Zhu, J. et al. Christolea crassifolia HARDY gene enhances drought stress tolerance in transgenic tomato plants. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 129, 469–481 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-017-1192-9

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