Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated cotyledonary-node explants transformation was used to produce transgenic cucumber. Cotyledonary-node explants of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. cv., Eunsung) were co-cultivated with Agrobacterium strains (EHA101) containing the binary vector (pPZP211) carrying with CaMV 35S promoter-nptII gene as selectable marker gene and 35S promoter-DQ gene (unpublished data) as target gene. The average of transformation efficiency (4.01%) was obtained from three times experiments and the maximum efficiency was shown at 5.97%. A total of 9 putative transgenic plants resistant to paromomycin were produced from the cultures of cotyledonary-node explants on selection medium. Among them, 6 transgenic plants showed that the nptII gene integrated into each genome of cucumber by Southern blot analysis.

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Plants have evolved defense mechanisms to overcome unfavorable climatic conditions. The growth and development of plants are regulated in response to environmental stress. In this study, we investigated the molecular and physiological characteristics of a novel gene PagSAP11 in hybrid poplar (Populus alba × Populus tremula var. glandulosa) under drought stress. PagSAP11, a stress-associated protein (SAP) family gene, encodes a putative protein containing an A20 and AN1 zinc-finger domain at its N- and C-termini, respectively. Knockdown of PagSAP11 transgenic poplars (SAP11-Ri) enhanced their tolerance to drought stress compared with wild type plants. Moreover, the RNAi lines showed increased branching of lateral shoots that led to a gain in fresh weight, even when grown in the living modified organism (LMO) field. In SAP11-Ri transgenic plants, the expression levels of genes involved in axillary bud outgrowth and cell proliferation such as DML10, CYP707A and RAX were increased while the DRM gene which involved in bud dormancy was down-regulated. Taken together, these results indicate that PagSAP11 represents a promising candidate gene for engineering trees with improved stress tolerance and growth during unfavorable conditions.