Tolerance to salt stress of the transgenic tetrasomic tetraploid potato, Solanum tuberosum cv. Desiree appears to be induced by the DREB1A gene and rd29A promoter of Arabidopsis thaliana

Abstract

Tetraploid potato cv. Desiree was transformed using an Arabidopsis thaliana stress-inducible promoter rd29A and the DREB1A gene, which confers multiple tolerances to abiotic stresses (e.g., dehydration and elevated soil salinity). Transformed Desiree lines showed a direct correlation between the DREB1A expression levels and the tolerance to salinity. By producing a filial progeny from the transgenic lines which was considered to harbor a single copy of the DREB1A gene, crossed with a non-transgenic cultivar, the genotype at the transgenic locus of these tetrasomic tetraploids was estimated by chi-square test, suggesting the existence of a Simplex mode. The results showed that low-copy heterozygous loci with the DREB1A gene could sustain the expression, and consequently confer a significant tolerance to salinity in tetrasomic tetraploid potatoes.