title: Transgenic tobacco plants constitutively expressing peanut BTF3 exhibit increased growth and tolerance to abiotic stresses.
abstract: Abiotic stresses limit crop growth and productivity worldwide. Cellular tolerance, an important abiotic stress adaptive trait, involves coordinated activities of multiple proteins linked to signalling cascades, transcriptional regulation and other diverse processes. Basal transcriptional machinery is considered to be critical for maintaining transcription under stressful conditions. From this context, discovery of novel basal transcription regulators from stress adapted crops like peanut would be useful for improving tolerance of sensitive plant types. In this study, we prospected a basal transcription factor, BTF3 from peanut (Arachis hypogaea L) and studied its relevance in stress acclimation by over expression in tobacco. AhBTF3 was induced under PEG-, NaCl-, and methyl viologen-induced stresses in peanut. The constitutive expression of AhBTF3 in tobacco increased plant growth under non stress condition. The transgenic plants exhibited superior phenotype compared to wild type under mannitol- and NaCl-induced stresses at seedling level. The enhanced cellular tolerance of transgenic plants was evidenced by higher cell membrane stability, reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging activity, seedling survival and vigour than wild type. The transgenic lines showed better in vitro regeneration capacity on growth media supplemented with NaCl than wild type. Superior phenotype of transgenic plants under osmotic and salinity stresses seems to be due to constitutive activation of genes of multiple pathways linked to growth and stress adaptation. The study demonstrated that AhBTF3 is a positive regulator of growth and stress acclimation and hence can be considered as a potential candidate gene for crop improvement towards stress adaptation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pruthvi
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rama
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Parvathi
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: K N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Nataraja
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000235:genetics; D010367:Arachis / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008353:Mannitol / Q000494:pharmacology; D064587:Osmoregulation / Q000235:genetics; D010269:Paraquat / Q000494:pharmacology; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000187:drug effects; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000235:genetics*; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D014157:Transcription Factors; D008353:Mannitol; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D010269:Paraquat
keywords: Abiotic stress; basic transcription factor 3 (BTF3); cellular tolerance; peanut