Overexpression of a trypanothione synthetase gene from Trypanosoma cruzi, TcTrys, confers enhanced tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses in rice

Abstract Plants are frequently exposed to variable environmental stresses that adversely affect plant growth, development and agricultural production. In this study, a trypanothione synthetase gene from Trypanosoma cruzi , TcTryS , was chemically synthesized and its roles in tolerance to multiple abiotic stresses were functionally characterized by generating transgenic rice overexpressing TcTryS . Overexpression of TcTryS in rice endows transgenic plants with hypersensitivity to ABA, hyposensitivity to NaCl- and mannitol-induced osmotic stress at the seed germination stage. TcTryS overexpression results in enhanced tolerance to drought, salt, cadmium, and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol stresses in transgenic rice, simultaneously supported by improved physiological traits. The TcTryS -overexpression plants also accumulated greater amounts of proline, less malondialdehyde and more transcripts of stress-related genes than wild-type plants under drought and salt stress conditions. In addition, TcTryS might play a positive role in maintaining chlorophyll content under 2,4,6-trichlorophenol stress. Histochemical staining assay showed that TcTryS renders transgenic plants better ROS-scavenging capability. All of these results suggest that TcTryS could function as a key regulator in modulation of abiotic stress tolerance in plant, and may have applications in the engineering of economically important crops.