biologia plantarum

International journal on Plant Life established by Bohumil Němec in 1959

Biologia plantarum 54:647-652, 2010 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-010-0115-y

Metabolic engineering using mtlD gene enhances tolerance to water deficit and salinity in sorghum

M. Maheswari1,*, Y. Varalaxmi1, A. Vijayalakshmi1, S. K. Yadav1, P. Sharmila2, B. Venkateswarlu1, M. Vanaja1, P. Pardha Saradhi2
1 Division of Crop Sciences, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santoshnagar, Hyderabad, India
2 Department of Environmental Biology, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

Sorghum bicolor L. Moench cv. SPV462 was transformed with the mtlD gene encoding for mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase from E. coli with an aim to enhance tolerance to water deficit and NaCl stress. Transgene (pCAM mtlD) integration and expression were successfully confirmed by PCR, Southern, RT-PCR and Western analysis. Segregation analysis based on germination of T0 seed on hygromycin-supplemented medium revealed an expected Mendelian ratio 3:1 in lines 5, 72 and 75. Retention of leaf water content was remarkably higher in transgenic leaf segments when exposed to polyethylene glycol 8000 (-2.0 MPa), as compared to the untransformed controls. Another significant finding is that the transgenics maintained a 1.7 to 2.8 fold higher shoot and root growth, respectively, under NaCl stress (200 mM) when compared to untransformed controls. These results demonstrate that engineering mannitol biosynthetic pathway into sorghum can impart enhanced tolerance to water deficit and salinity.

Keywords: biolistics; mannitol; mtlD gene; Sorghum bicolor; transformation
Subjects: β-glucuronidase; mannitol; particle bombardment; polymerase chain reaction (PCR); relative water content (RWC); salinity; sorghum; Sorghum bicolor; transgenic plants; water stress

Received: August 25, 2008; Accepted: July 21, 2009; Published: December 1, 2010  Show citation

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Maheswari, M., Varalaxmi, Y., Vijayalakshmi, A., Yadav, S.K., Sharmila, P., Venkateswarlu, B., Vanaja, M., & Pardha Saradhi, P. (2010). Metabolic engineering using mtlD gene enhances tolerance to water deficit and salinity in sorghum. Biologia plantarum, 54(4), 647-652. doi: 10.1007/s10535-010-0115-y
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