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The SlCMO Gene Driven by Its Own Promoter Enhances Salt Tolerance of Transgenic Tomato Without Affecting Growth and Yield

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Abstract

Choline monooxygenase (CMO) is a key enzyme involved in betaine synthesis and our preliminary work has shown that the SlCMO gene promoter (pC5: − 267 to + 128 base pair), cloned from Suaeda liaotungensis, is salt-inducible. In the present study, pC5-SlCMO was transferred into tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L. ‘Micro-Tom’) plants via Agrobacterium mediation. Homozygous transgenic plants were selected using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The expression of SlCMO in pC5-SlCMO transgenic plants was induced by salinity. Under salt tolerance, betaine content, chlorophyll content, and net photosynthetic rate were higher in transgenic plants than in wild-type (WT) plants. Proline content was lower in transgenic plants than in WT plants. Under normal conditions, seed germination, length of the whole plant, dry weight, and fruit products of transgenic plants were the same as in WT plants. These results demonstrated that the pC5 promoter can drive increased expression of SlCMO in transgenic tomato plants under salt stress and increase salt tolerance without affecting plant growth and yield.

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Abbreviations

Aug:

Augmentin

bp:

Base pair

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

CMO:

Choline monooxygenase

Hyg:

Hygromycin

IAA:

Indole acetic acid

MS:

Murashige and Skoog

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time PCR

WT:

Wild type

ZT:

Zeatin

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30871389) and the Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in University (No. 2009R36).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Liaoning Normal University, Key Laboratory of Plant Biotechnology of Liaoning Province, 1 South Liushu Street, Ganjingzi District, Dalian, 116081, Liaoning, China

    Qiu-Li Li, Lu-Di Lai, Xiao-Dong Yu & Jing-Yu Wang

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  1. Qiu-Li Li
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  2. Lu-Di Lai
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  3. Xiao-Dong Yu
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  4. Jing-Yu Wang
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Contributions

Qiuli Li designed the experiment and led the overall research. Ludi Lai developed the transgenic tomato plants. Xiaodong Yu performed the salt tolerance analysis and growth performance measurements of transgenic tomato plants. Jingyu Wang developed the molecular analysis of transgenic tomato plants. All authors contributed to manuscript development.

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Correspondence to Qiu-Li Li.

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Li, QL., Lai, LD., Yu, XD. et al. The SlCMO Gene Driven by Its Own Promoter Enhances Salt Tolerance of Transgenic Tomato Without Affecting Growth and Yield. Plant Mol Biol Rep 36, 596–604 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-018-1104-0

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