Genetic engineering of drought-resistant tobacco plants by introducing the trehalose phosphorylase (TP) gene from Pleurotus sajor-caju

This study generated transgenic tobacco plants expressing trehalose phosphorylase of Pleurotus sajor-caju (PsTP) constitutively under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter. Sixteen transgenic lines were selected by genomic Southern blot analysis for further study. Unlike yeast TPS1-transformed or Escherichia coli TPS1-transformed tobacco or potato, all of the PsTP transgenic tobacco lines showed normal growth phenotypes both in the culture tubes and soil mixture. The study measured the trehalose contents of PsTP-transformed tobacco plants as well as the wild type and empty vector-transformed control plants. Results showed that the PsTP transformant contained 6.3 μmol g−1 of plant tissues, while the wild type and the control plants had only minimal levels of trehalose. Because this study detected a significant amount of trehalose in PsTP transgenic tobacco plants, it decided to carry out a bioanalysis of the PsTP transgenic tobacco plants by drought treatment by not watering the plants for over 10 days. A significant difference in drought resistance was observed from the second nonwatering day between the transgenic and the control tobacco plants. The transgenic tobacco plants had normal growth and did not wither, while the wild type and the only empty vector-transformed control plants withered severely. Among all the transgenic lines, line 10-4 showed the strongest resistance to drought stress. It did not wither even after 10 days without watering. In addition, when the drought resistance of PsTP transgenic tobacco plants was tested using detached leaves, most transgenic plants, except one line, showed better capacity to retain water than the empty vector-transformed transgenic plant.