PJB-2022-99
OVEREXPRESSION OF SlAIMI GENE ENCODING R2R3 MYB TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR INDUCES DROUGHT TOLERANCE IN POTATOES
Irem Aycan Sirel
Abstract
Potatoes encounter many biotic and abiotic stress factors during different growth stages. These stresses can disrupt the normal growth functions of the plant and eventually cause a decrease in tuber yield. Plants have developed various defense mechanisms at the molecular level against stressors. One of these defense mechanisms is changes in gene expression. Engineering of gene(s) encoding transcription factors to plants is an important approach to enhance and develop stress tolerant crop plants. MYB protein genes have a role as a transcription factors which are induced or suppressed in reply to the different abiotic stresses. In this study, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) SlAIM1 (an ABA-induced MYB transcription factor) gene was engineered in potato to evaluate its effects under drought tolerance. Agrobacterium strain AGL1 harboring pEarleyGate 100 vector containing SlAIMI gene under the control of constitutive promoter (35S) was used to infect leaf, nodal, micro tuber and internodal explants of potato Agria cultivar. The transgenic plants revealed accumulated levels (up to 6 fold increase) compared to control when subjected to artifically induced in vitro stress conditions. These results are expected to potentially contribute to the efforts to increase the drought tolerance in potatoes through genetic engineering of transcription factors.
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