Improved Growth, Drought Tolerance, and Ultrastructural Evidence of Increased Turgidity in Tobacco Plants Overexpressing Arabidopsis Vacuolar Pyrophosphatase (AVP1)

Abstract

An increasing volume of evidence indicating the mechanisms of drought tolerance of AVP1-overexpressing transgenic plants has been reported. In the present study, we are reporting the experiments conducted for the drought tolerance of AVP1 overexpressing plants and WT tobacco plants in three water regimes named as "fully watered," "less-watered," and "desiccated". Results suggest that AVP1 plants exhibited greater vigor and drought tolerance in quantitative terms i.e., increase in size and weight of shoots and capsules. AVP1 plants produced more seeds than WT across all three water regimes. The less-watered regime was found to produce the greatest contrast. AVP1 overexpression enhanced solute accumulation in vacuoles resulting in an increase in water retention and turgor of the cell. The ultrastructure study of AVP1 overexpressing cells and WT leaf cells revealed that AVP1 plants displayed more turgid and hyperosmotic cells than WT. Moreover, guard cells in the AVP1 plants exhibited thick cell walls, few vacuoles, and deep and close stomata, whereas WT plants showed larger vacuoles and relatively open stomata aperture with no significant difference in size and number of the cells per unit area.