Physiological and Growth Responses of Tomato Progenies Harboring the Betaine Alhyde Dehydrogenase Gene to Salt Stress

Abstract

The responses of five transgenic tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) lines containing the betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) gene to salt stress were evaluated. Proline, betaine (N, N, N-trimethylglycine, hereafter betaine), chlorophyll and ion contents, BADH activity, electrolyte leakage (EL), and some growth parameters of the plants under 1.0% and 1.5% NaCl treatments were examined. The transgenic tomatoes had enhanced BADH activity and betaine content, compared to the wild type under stress conditions. Salt stress reduced chlorophyll contents to a higher extent in the wild type than in the transgenic plants. The wild type exhibited significantly higher proline content than the transgenic plants at 0.9% and 1.3% NaCl. Cell membrane of the wild type was severely damaged as determined by higher EL under salinity stress. K + and Ca 2+ contents of all tested lines decreased under salt stress, but the transgenic plants showed a significantly higher accumulation of K + and Ca 2+ than the wild type. In contrast, the wild type had significantly higher Cl -and Na + contents than the transgenic plants under salt stress. Although yield reduction among various lines varied, the wild type had the highest yield reduction. Fruit quality of the transgenic plants was better in comparison with the wild type as shown by a low ratio of blossom end rot fruits. The results show that the transgenic plants have improved salt tolerance over the wild type.

Physiological responses to salt stress of T2 alfalfa progenies carrying a transgene for betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase

“…Zhou et al (2007) found that cell membrane damage was lower in BADH expressed tomato than in wild-type under salt stress and this is in agreement with the higher relative membrane permeability and MDA (Fig. 6) of the non-transgenic plants in salinized conditions.…”

“…Betaine accumulation plays an important role in transgenic plants. By transforming tomato with the gene responsible for betaine synthesis, Kumar et al (2004) and Zhou et al (2007) found that a higher betaine accumulation in the transgenic plants corresponded to their enhanced salt tolerance.…”

Review of forests, wood products and wood biotechnology of Iran and Germany - Part III

“…Several adaptations may increase the seedling's ability to cope with the consequences of drought: the ability to maintain viability at water potentials below the turgor loss point (Richards and Lamont, 1996), Rapid root growth to exploit the temporally-and spatially-restricted soil water resources (Schutz, 1999), and a high root: shoot ratio (Osunkoya et al, 1994). The reduction of productivity in many plants subjected to excessive salinity or drought is often associated with reduced photosynthetic capacity as determined by lower chlorophyll contents (Netondo et al, 2004, Zhou et al 2007. Under drought stress, the reduction of chlorophyll contents in our treatments was more obvious than that control plants, showing a more sever drought damages evidenced more pale green leaves and visible loss of turger.…”

“…• Pine resin collecting • Rattan (Daemonorops margaritae and Calamus tetradactylus) (LI et al, 2007) • Alpina katsumadai as a medicinal plant, but also as ornamental plant usable…”

“…Prolin is another widely studied compatible solute for plants grown under stress conditions (Delauney and Verma, 1993), which is important in osmotic adjustment in plant tissues (Hare and Cress, 1997) and is also a nitrogen source during recovery from stress (Trotel et al, 1996). However, Prolin accumulation appeared to be merely a result of salt stress damage rather than an indication of salt tolerance (De Lacerda, et al, 2003;Claussen, 2005;Zhou et al, 2007). We examined the growth of Eucalyptus camaldulensis in response to drought in a controlled environment to elucidate mechanisms and relations between both physiological (prolin, soluble sugar, Glycin betain,…) and morphological (biomass,…) response to biophysical environmental stress.…”