In:
Functional Plant Biology, CSIRO Publishing, Vol. 40, No. 10 ( 2013), p. 1048-
Abstract:
GsCBRLK encodes a novel plant-specific calcium-dependent calmodulin-binding receptor-like kinase from Glycine soja Siebold & Zucc. In our previous study, GsCBRLK was found to be a positive regulator of plant tolerance to salt and abscisic acid (ABA) stress. In this study we transformed alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) with GsCBRLK to assess whether forage legumes overexpressing GsCBRLK adapt to saline soils. Results showed that transgenic alfalfa plants overexpressing GsCBRLK exhibited enhanced salt tolerance. Transgenic alfalfa grew well in the presence of 300 mM NaCl for 15 days, whereas wild-type (WT) plants exhibited severe chlorosis and growth retardation. Although transgenic alfalfa grew slowly and even had yellow leaves under the 400 mM NaCl treatment, most of the WT plants exhibited more severe chlorosis and did not survive. In addition, samples from transgenic and WT plants treated with 300 mM NaCl for 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 days were selected for physiological analysis. Lower membrane leakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were observed in transgenic alfalfa compared with WT plants during salt treatment. The reduction of chlorophyll content in transgenic alfalfa was less than that in WT plants. Furthermore, the plants that overexpressed GsCBRLK showed enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, less of a Na+ increase, and a greater K+ decrease than WT plants. These results indicated that the overexpression of GsCBRLK confers enhanced tolerance to salt stress in transgenic alfalfa.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1445-4408
Language:
English
Publisher:
CSIRO Publishing
Publication Date:
2013
SSG:
12
Permalink