PJB-2019-357
Drought Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Wheat Conferred by Expression of a Dehydration-Responsive Element-Binding 1A Gene
Khalid Mehmood
Abstract
Drought stress hinders root and shoot growth, leaf area, biomass accumulation, plant fresh and dry weight signifying the severe losses of plant growth and development. During drought stress, different genes are activated that increase the drought tolerance efficiency of plants. In this study, DREB1A gene was transformed in wheat cv. Lasani-08 to improve drought tolerance efficiency after optimizing in planta Agrobacterium mediated transformation protocol. The results reveal that 3.0 mg/l 2, 4-D and 6 h soaking period were found to be the best combination for in planta transformation. The inoculation of seeds with Agrobacterium suspension before germination of apical meristem was proved to be the best time for obtaining more transformation efficiency (6.38%) as compared to seeds inoculation after germination of apical meristem. Molecular analyses of transgenic plants through PCR, Southern blotting and RT-PCR confirmed the presence, number of copies and expression profile of transgene in T1 generation. The drought tolerance efficiency was assessed in T2 transgenic plants on the basis of agronomical and biochemical analyses. These detailed analyses reveal that DREB1A gene has fostering effect on the expression of a large number of genes by means of enhanced germination frequency, germination rate index, shoot, root and coleoptiles lengths, relative water contents, proline contents and total chlorophyll contents of transgenic plants relative to control plants. In summary, our results propose that DREB1A is involved in improving drought stress tolerance of transgenic wheat by sustaining growth and yield of plants.
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