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Biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic tomatoes by constitutive expression of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase gene

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Abstract

Recent findings have implicated the role of polyamines (putrescine, spermidine and spermine) in stress tolerance. Therefore, the present work was carried out with the goal of generating transgenic tomato plants with human S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (samdc) gene, a key gene involved in biosynthesis of polyamines, viz. spermidine and spermine and evaluating the transgenic plants for tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stresses. Several putative transgenic tomato plants with normal phenotype were obtained, and the transgene integration and expression was validated by PCR, Southern blot analysis and RT-PCR analysis, respectively. The transgenic plants exhibited high levels of polyamines as compared to the untransformed control plants. They also showed increased resistance against two important fungal pathogens of tomato, the wilt causing Fusarium oxysporum and the early blight causing Alternaria solani and tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, cold and high temperature. These results suggest that engineering polyamine accumulation can confer tolerance to both biotic and abiotic stresses in plants.

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Acknowledgements

This study was generously supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST—Grant no SP/SO/BB16/2002) to MVR, New Delhi. The authors are thankful to Dr. Bhawna Waie for making the binary vector pMVR1SAMDC used for this study. Senior research fellowship to PH by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research is also acknowledged. We also thank the University Grants Commission for providing ‘Special Assistant Program’, and DST for FIST program.

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  1. Plant Polyamine and Transgenic Research Laboratory, Department of Genetics, University of Delhi, South Campus, Benito Juarez Road, New Delhi, 110021, India

    Pranjal Hazarika & Manchikatla Venkat Rajam

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  1. Pranjal Hazarika
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  2. Manchikatla Venkat Rajam
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Correspondence to Manchikatla Venkat Rajam.

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Hazarika, P., Rajam, M.V. Biotic and abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic tomatoes by constitutive expression of S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase gene. Physiol Mol Biol Plants 17, 115–128 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-011-0053-y

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