Transgenic Tomato Plants Expressing BrOAT1 gene from Brassica rapa var. SUN-3061 Show Enhanced Tolerance to Salt Stress

Salt stress is by far the leading environmental stress limiting crop yields worldwide. Genetic engineering techniques hold great promise for developing crop cultivars with high tolerance to salt stress. In this study, the Brassica rapa var. SUN-3061 BrOAT1 gene was transferred into tomato through Agrobacterium-mediated leaf disc transformation. The transgenic status and transgene expression of the transgenic plants was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and semi-quantitative one step RT-PCR analysis respectively. Subsequently, the growth status under salt stress, and physiological responses to salt stress of transgenic tomato were studied. The results showed that the transgenic plants exhibited better growth status under salt stress condition compared to the wild type plants. In physiological assessment of salt stress tolerance, transgenic plants showed more dry matter accumulation and maintained significantly higher levels of leaf chlorophyll content along with increasing levels of salt stress than the wild type plants. This study shows that BrOAT1 is a candidate gene in the engineering of crops for enhanced salt stress tolerance.