Abstract

Sweetpotato is a significant crop which is widely cultivated particularly in the developing countries with high and stable yield. However, drought stress is a major limiting factor that antagonistically influences the crop's productivity. Dehydration stress caused by drought causes aggregation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants, and aldose reductases are first-line safeguards against ROS caused by oxidative stress. In the present study, we generated transgenic sweetpotato plants expressing aldose reductase, XvAld1 isolated from Xerophyta viscosa under the control of a stress-inducible promoter via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Our results demonstrated that the transgenic sweetpotato lines displayed significant enhanced tolerance to simulated drought stress and enhanced recuperation after rehydration contrasted with wild-type plants. In addition, the transgenic plants exhibited improved photosynthetic efficiency, higher water content and more proline accumulation under dehydration stress conditions compared with wild-type plants. These results demonstrate that exploiting the XvAld1 gene is not only a compelling and attainable way to improve sweetpotato tolerance to drought stresses without causing any phenotypic imperfections but also a promising gene candidate for more extensive crop improvement.

Keywords

Drought stress; Genetic transformation; Ipomoea batatas; Reactive oxygen species; Sweetpotato; Xerophyta viscosa

Published in

Molecular Biotechnology
2018, Volume: 60, number: 3, pages: 203-214
Publisher: HUMANA PRESS INC

SLU Authors

• Dixelius, Christina

  • Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Plant Biotechnology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-018-0063-x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/94357