title: Heterologous expression of Arabidopsis H+-pyrophosphatase enhances salt tolerance in transgenic creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.).
abstract: The Arabidopsis vacuolar H(+)-pyrophosphatase (AVP1), when over-expressed in transgenic (TG) plants, regulates root and shoot development via facilitation of auxin flux, and enhances plant resistance to salt and drought stresses. Here, we report that TG perennial creeping bentgrass plants over-expressing AVP1 exhibited improved resistance to salinity than wild-type (WT) controls. Compared to WT plants, TGs grew well in the presence of 100 mm NaCl, and exhibited higher tolerance and faster recovery from damages from exposure to 200 and 300 mm NaCl. The improved performance of the TG plants was associated with higher relative water content (RWC), higher Na(+) uptake and lower solute leakage in leaf tissues, and with higher concentrations of Na(+), K(+), Cl(-) and total phosphorus in root tissues. Under salt stress, proline content was increased in both WT and TG plants, but more significantly in TGs. Moreover, TG plants exhibited greater biomass production than WT controls under both normal and elevated salinity conditions. When subjected to salt stress, fresh (FW) and dry weights (DW) of both leaves and roots decreased more significantly in WT than in TG plants. Our results demonstrated the great potential of genetic manipulation of vacuolar H(+)-pyrophosphatase expression in TG perennial species for improvement of plant abiotic stress resistance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, 100 Jordan Hall, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Christian M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D031703:Agrostis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002712:Chlorides / Q000378:metabolism; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000032:analysis; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D007210:Indoleacetic Acids / Q000032:analysis; D043564:Inorganic Pyrophosphatase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000378:metabolism; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011188:Potassium / Q000378:metabolism; D055051:Salt-Tolerant Plants / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012964:Sodium / Q000378:metabolism; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D002712:Chlorides; D007210:Indoleacetic Acids; D014867:Water; D002734:Chlorophyll; D010758:Phosphorus; C030737:indoleacetic acid; D012964:Sodium; C505048:AVP1 protein, Arabidopsis; D043564:Inorganic Pyrophosphatase; D011188:Potassium