Investigation of the response to salinity of transgenic potato plants overexpressing the transcription factor StERF94

• Published in: Journal of biosciences Vol. 44; no. 6; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Authors: Charfeddine, Mariam, Charfeddine, Safa, Ghazala, Imen, Bouaziz, Donia, Bouzid, Radhia Gargouri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01-12-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abiotic factors; Adenosine Triphosphatases - genetics; Antioxidants; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Catalase; Cell Biology; Chloroplast Proteins - genetics; Cultivation; Dehydration; Dehydrin; Elongation; Ethylenes - metabolism; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - genetics; Genome, Plant; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Hydrogen peroxide; Life Sciences; Low level; Malondialdehyde; Microbiology; Oxidative stress; Peroxidase; Plant growth; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Sciences; Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics; Plants, Genetically Modified - growth & development; Potatoes; Salinity; Salinity effects; Salt Tolerance - genetics; Salts; Sodium chloride; Sodium Chloride - pharmacology; Solanum tuberosum - genetics; Solanum tuberosum - growth & development; Stress, Physiological - genetics; Superoxide Dismutase - genetics; Synthesis; Transcription; Transcription factors; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transgenic plants; Vegetables; Zoology; transcription factor; transgenic plants; Ethylene responsive factor; Salinity
• ISSN: 0250-5991; 0973-7138
• DOI: 10.1007/s12038-019-9959-2

Salinity is one of the most important constraints threatening the cultivation of potato plants (
Solanum tuberosum
L.). It affects plant growth and leads to significant yield loss. Consequently, it is important to improve the tolerance of potato plants to salinity. In this context, we investigated the involvement of a potato ethylene responsive factor (StERF94) in plant response to salinity, since our previous genome-wide analysis showed that it may be related to biotic and abiotic stress response. ERF proteins belong to a large family of transcription factors that participate in plant response to abiotic stresses. We have previously identified the StERF94 gene which shows increased expression in potato plants submitted to salt treatment. In this study, transgenic potato plants overexpressing StERF94 were produced and submitted to salt treatment (100 mM NaCl)
in vitro
and under greenhouse culture conditions. StERF94 transgenic lines showed lower decrease of stem elongation under salt treatment in comparison to non-transgenic wild-type plants. Moreover, these plants showed a low level of H
2
O
2
and Malondialdehyde content, and an increase in catalase and GPX (Gluthation peroxidase) activities compared to non-transgenic plants. In a second step, enhanced expression of some target genes for example CuZn-SOD, DHN25 (Dehydrin) and ERD (Early Responsive to Dehydration) was noted in the StERF94 transgenic plants, submitted to salt treatment. The StERF94 factor was also involved in the activation of osmoprotectant synthesis. Taken together, all these data suggest that overexpression of the StERF94 transcription factor increases the tolerance of potato plants to salinity by improving plant growth, osmoprotectant synthesis and antioxidant activityleading to low oxidative stress damage.