Abstract
Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is the main natural fiber crop worldwide and is an essential source of seed oil and biofuel products. Many abiotic stresses, such as drought and salinity, constrain cotton production. Thioredoxins (TRXs) are a group of small ubiquitous proteins that are widely distributed among organisms. TRXs play a crucial role in regulating diverse functions during plant growth and development. In the present study, a novel GhTRX134 gene was characterized and overexpressed in Arabidopsis and silenced in cotton under drought stress. Furthermore, the proline content and enzyme activity levels were measured in transgenic plants and wild-type (Wt) plants under drought and salt stress. The results revealed that the overexpression of GhTRX134 enhanced abiotic stress tolerance. When GhTRX134 was silenced, cotton plants become more sensitive to drought. Taken together, these findings confirmed that the overexpression of GhTRX134 improved drought and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis plants. Therefore, the GhTRX134 gene can be transformed into cotton plants to obtain transgenic lines for more functional details.
Highlights
Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is regarded as a vital natural fiber crop worldwide and is an essential source of seed oil and biofuel products [1]
The GhTRX134 gene was cloned from a true leaf of G. hirsutum
The GhTRX134 gene contains one exon, and the open read frame (ORF) length is 900 bp and encodes a protein consisting of 299 amino acids, with a molecular weight of 32 kD
Summary
Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is regarded as a vital natural fiber crop worldwide and is an essential source of seed oil and biofuel products [1]. Many abiotic stresses that negatively affect plant growth and development constrain cotton production, causing large economic losses [2]. Reports indicate that cotton production areas have decreased worldwide with continuing drought [1]. Drought-tolerant cotton varieties become the main objective for plant breeding programs [3]. Protein thiols are a part of proteins with sulfhydryl groups (–SH), which include thioredoxins (TRXs), proteins involved in glutathionylation, and glutaredoxins [4] play a critical role in biotic and abiotic stress tolerance [2,5]. TRXs are proteins that are widely distributed among organisms and can reduce the disulfide bridges of their target proteins by their active centers (cystein (Cys)-Gly-Pro-Cys) [6]
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