| Author/Editor | Buh Gašparič, Meti; Lenassi, Metka; Gostinčar, Cene; Rotter, Ana; Plemenitaš, Ana; Gunde-Cimerman, Nina; Gruden, Kristina; Žel, Jana | |
| Title | Insertion of a specific fungal 3'-phosphoadenosine-5'-phosphatase motif into a plant homologue improves halotoleranceand drought tolerance of plants | |
| Type | članek | |
| Vol. and No. | Letnik 8, št. 12 | |
| Publication year | 2013 | |
| ISSN | Y506-0087 - PloS one (Združene države Amerike) | |
| Language | eng | |
| Abstract | Soil salinity and drought are among the most serious agricultural and environmental problems of today. Therefore,investigations of plant resistance to abiotic stress have received a lot of attention in recent years. In this study, we identifiedthe complete coding sequence of a 39-phosphoadenosine-59-phosphatase protein, ApHal2, from the halotolerant yeastAureobasidium pullulans. Expression of the ApHAL2 gene in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae hal2 mutant complemented themutant auxotrophy for methionine, and rescued the growth of the hal2 mutant in media with high NaCl concentrations. A21-amino-acids-long region of the ApHal2 enzyme was inserted into the Arabidopsis thaliana homologue of Hal2, the SAL1phosphatase. The inserted sequence included the META motif, which has previously been implicated in increased sodiumtolerance of the Hal2 homologue from a related fungal species. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing this modifiedSAL1 (mSAL1) showed improved halotolerance and drought tolerance. In a medium with an elevated salt concentration,mSAL1-expressing plants were twice as likely to have roots in a higher length category in comparison with the wild-typeArabidopsis and with plants overexpressing the native SAL1, and had 5% to 10% larger leaf surface area under moderate andsevere salt stress, respectively. Similarly, after moderate drought exposure, the mSAL1-expressing plants showed 14%increased dry weight after revitalisation, with no increase in dry weight of the wild-type plants. With severe drought, plantsoverexpressing native SAL1 had the worst rehydration success, consistent with the recently proposed role of SAL1 in severedrought. This was not observed for plants expressing mSAL1. Therefore, the presence of this fungal META motif sequence isbeneficial under conditions of increased salinity and moderate drought, and shows no drawbacks for plant survival undersevere drought. This demonstrates that adaptations of extremotolerant fungi should be considered as a valuable resourcefor improving stress-tolerance in plant breeding in the future. | |
| Keywords | slanost in suša tal odpornost rastlin abiotski stres soil salinity and drought plant resistance abiotic stress |