Abstract
Research on genetic transformation in various crop plants using the DREB1A transcription factor has shown better abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic crops. The AtDREB1A transgenic peanut (Arachis hypogaea L. cv. GG 20), which was previously developed, was characterized in terms of its physio-biochemical, molecular and growth parameters. The tolerance of this transgenic peanut to drought and salinity stresses was evaluated at the seedling (18 days old) and maturity stages. Transgenic peanut lines showed improved tolerance to both stresses over wild-type, as observed by delayed and less severe wilting of leaves and by improved growth parameters that were correlated with physio-biochemical parameters such as proline content, total chlorophyll content, osmotic potential, electrolytic leakage and relative water content. The expression pattern of the AtDREB1A gene evaluated using qPCR at different time points demonstrated that transgene expression was induced within two hours of stress imposition. The better performance of transgenic AtDREB1A peanut at the seedling stage and the improved growth parameters were due to the expression of the transgene, which is a transcription factor, and the possible up-regulation of various stress-inducible, downstream genes in the signal transduction pathway under abiotic stress.
Highlights
Peanut, or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), is an important oil-yielding, leguminous cash crop, which is cultivated in the semi-arid tropical and subtropical regions of the world between 40 ̊ N and 40 ̊ S [1]
Similar patterns of proline accumulation were observed in maize and tall fescue, expressing molybdenum cofactor sulfurase and DREB1A/CBF3 genes, respectively, under drought stress [42, 43]
We can conclude that AtDREB1A expression improved both the drought and salinity tolerance of the T lines which could be due to its subsequent involvement in the signal transduction pathway [18, 19, 26, 77]
Summary
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), is an important oil-yielding, leguminous cash crop, which is cultivated in the semi-arid tropical and subtropical regions of the world between 40 ̊ N and 40 ̊ S [1]. Abiotic Stress Tolerance in AtDREB1A Transgenic Peanut. Africa and Asia [2]. Across the world, it is cultivated over approximately 20–25 million ha in total, yielding 35–40 million tons of pods annually. The second largest peanut producer in the world, cultivated approximately 5–6 million ha, yielding 6–7 million tons of pods, during 2011–2012 [3, 4]. Water-deficit and soilsalinity conditions are considered to be complex abiotic stresses that affect both the growth and productivity of peanut crops [5] by disturbing the integrity of plant membrane, pigment content, osmotic adjustments, water retention capacity and photosynthetic activity [6,7,8,9]
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